Astronomers captured mesmerizing swirling clouds of gas in NGC 4303

Using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the VLT, astronomers observed NGC 4303 and captured a mesmerizing, bright and golden swirling clouds of gas that generate an exceptionally high rate of star formation.

NGC 4303 – a stellar nursery – is a spiral galaxy known as or Messier 61, located 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. And being a large nearby grouping of galaxies, NGC 4303 is also one of the largest galactic members of the Virgo Cluster.

Galaxy NGC 4303 is also called a starburst galaxy because unusually high amount of stars are getting birth there. A statement from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reads that studying this type of galaxy helps astronomers to better understand star formation across the universe.

“Stars form when clouds of cold gas collapse,” ESO officials wrote in the statement.

The mesmerizing image of the NGC 4303 shows bright swirling clouds of the ionized gas, appearing as a “whirlpool of gold”. The photo was taken using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. As stated in the statement, the swirling clouds are also like cosmic breadcrumbs, tracing the path of new stars being born.

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