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ALMA's millimeter and submillimeter wave test views here are represented in orange and yellows.
In this zoomed-in image of the Antennae Galaxies, the generation of super bright, hot stars that formed when the denser centers of the two spirals first collided shine in white-blue. The latest stars to light up are ionizing their gas shrouds, making the hydrogen glow bright pink around them. (Optical images from HST ACS/WFC.)
Future stars are growing now, concealed in dark clouds into which optical telescopes cannot see. However, ALMA sees through the obscuring dust and traces of these stellar nurseries, many of which show the continuation of the cloud that has been lit pink by a previous generation of new stars. ALMA's millimeter/submillimeter wave test views here are represented in orange and yellows to contrast with the previous starbirth generations.
Credit: (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); HST (NASA, ESA, and B. Whitmore (STScI))
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
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