Outflows from merging galaxy J1558+3957

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy J1558+3957 shows it is undergoing a firestorm of star birth, as shown by its bright white cores.

This star-making frenzy was ignited by mergers with other galaxies. The odd shape of the galaxy is telltale evidence of a close encounters.

The new Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 observations of this and eleven other galaxies undergoing the same process suggest that energy from the star-birthing frenzies created powerful winds that are blowing out the gas, meaning it is not available to form future generations of stars.

This activity occurred when the Universe was half its current age of 13.7 billion years. The gas-poor galaxies may eventually become so-called red and dead galaxies, composed only of aging stars.

This Hubble false-colour image was processed to bring out important details in the galaxy. The images were taken in 2010.