The latest cosmic baby boom is producing a ring of fire. In galaxy NGC 1291, located 33 million light years away in the Eridanus constellation, igniting gas is creating a star-forming frenzy that's giving it an outer glow.
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, shows a central area of older stars that have gobbled up their star-forming fuel. They produce shorter wavelength light, shown in blue.
In the outer ring of the galaxy, gas is being churned and compressed until it bursts into life as new stars, which heat up surrounding dust. These particles glow brightly at longer wavelengths, producing the red swirl.
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