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From galaxy collisions to star birth: ISO finds the missing link

29 March 2005

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This picture shows the colliding galaxies known as Antennae (NGC4038/4039) located 60 million light years away in the constellation Corvus. Data from ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) have provided the first direct evidence that shock waves genarated by the collision excite the gas and create the right conditions for star formation. The excited gas is observed in the overlapping region (enclosed within the white dashed lines). New stars will be born there and in the course of the next million year they will make the Antennae galaxies twice as bright in the infrared.

Credits: HST image, ESA/NASA

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An artist's impression of the ISO spacecraft.

Credits: ESA