Dwarf Galaxy Suddenly Produces Dazzling Star Clusters

Space





Photo credit:

Image of Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, the irregular galaxy. The yellow spots indicate the regions of compact interstellar clouds. B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); M. Rubio et al., Universidad de Chile, ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ)

It's a cosmic fairytale story: A lowly dwarf galaxy, poor in matter and with no prospects of stardom, inexplicably begins producing a burst of dazzling star clusters. But how did this galaxy go from rags to riches in its isolated environment without the help of larger dust-rich galaxies?