![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2018\/01\/dwarf_galaxy_kiso_5639\/17321530-1-eng-GB\/Dwarf_galaxy_Kiso_5639_small.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\nIn this NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, a firestorm of star birth is lighting up one end of the dwarf galaxy Kiso 5639.\n<\/p>\n
\nKiso 5639 is shaped like a pancake but, because it is tilted edge-on, it resembles a skyrocket, with a brilliant blazing head and a long, star-studded tail. Its appearance earns it a place in the \u201ctadpole\u201d class of galaxies.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe bright pink head is from the glow of hydrogen, lit up by the burst of new stars. The mass of these young stars equals about a million Suns. The stars are grouped into large clusters that formed less than a million years ago.\n<\/p>\n
\nStars consist mainly of hydrogen and helium, but cook up heavier elements such as oxygen and carbon. When the stars die, they release their heavy elements and enrich the surrounding gas. In Kiso 5639, the bright gas in the galaxy\u2019s head is more deficient in heavy elements than the rest of the galaxy. Astronomers think that the latest star-formation event was triggered when the galaxy accreted primordial gas from its surroundings, since intergalactic space contains more pristine, hydrogen-rich gas.\n<\/p>\n
\nCavities in the gas are due to numerous supernova detonations \u2013 like bursts of fireworks in the sky \u2013 carving out holes of superheated gas.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe elongated tail, seen stretching away from the galaxy\u2019s head and scattered with bright blue stars, contains at least four distinct star-forming regions. These stars appear to be older than those in the star-forming head.\n<\/p>\n
\nWispy filaments, comprising gas and some stars, extend from the main body of the cosmic tadpole.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe observations were taken in February 2015 and July 2015 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Kiso 5639 is 82 million light-years from us and its head is some 2700 light-years across.\n<\/p>\n