Caught in the act

NGC 3351, also known as Messier 95, was first discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, a French astronomer and surveyor who worked alongside Charles Messier. NGC 3351 is a type of galaxy known as a barred spiral galaxy and it is located in the constellation of Leo (The Lion).

New observations of this object have shown stellar feedback in action. Stellar feedback is the process of redistributing energy into the interstellar medium (the space in between the stars) within star-forming galaxies. In this particular galaxy, star formation is occurring in the ring surrounding the galaxy nucleus at such a violent rate that massive bubbles of hot gas can actually be seen being ejected. This ejected gas can then contribute (both positively and negatively) to ongoing star formation within the galaxy.

The data for this observation were taken with ALMA, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, showing once again that scientific collaboration across multiple facilities can produce some wonderful results.