Cactus Flowers in the
Cactus Flowers in the
Formation of
Young StarsYellow flowers of prickly pear cacti bask in the light of a galaxy some 13 million light years from Earth.
NGC 4214 is forming new stars from interstellar gas and dust, producing glowing gas clouds and star clusters. The radiation and winds created by hot young stars billow outward as the stars age. The central clusters of massive blue stars pictured here have reached the end of their life span and are exploding as supernova. The galactic scene was created by NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team from multiple exposures by the Hubble Space Telescope. (PR00-01; also credit AURA/STScI)
The complete evolution of star formation is displayed here, just as the flowers exhibit their own maturation from unopened buds to shriveled petals.
This photograph has been on public display in 2002 in Albuquerque at the Harwood Art Center and the City of Albuquerque's ArtsCrawl as part of the juried exhibition Artist's Respond: 5000 Flowers Project to honor the victims of September 11, 2001. It was also on display for In Response, a similar national juried exhibition at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA.
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