An opportunity to study how extremely massive stars are born in large fragmented gas clouds might now be resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope images of the Cartwheel Galaxy. The ring-like feature of the Cartwheel Galaxy may be the direct result of a collision between one or more smaller intruder galaxies. A radio telescope mapping of the region tends to support this supposition.
Galaxies travel through space at speeds approaching two million miles per hour.
Like a rock tossed into a lake, the collision sent a ripple of energy into space,plowing gas and dust in front of it at 200,000 miles per hour. Hubble's detailed view shows the knot-like structure of the ring, produced by large clusters of new star formation. Hubble also resolves the effects of thousands of supernovae on the ring structure. One flurry of explosions blew a hole in the ring and formed a giant bubble of hot gas. Hubble resolves new details in the galaxy's core with bright pinpoints of light indicating gigantic young star clusters.