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Credit & Copyright: Illustrator J. Gitlin (STScI),
H. Ferguson (STScI), N. Tanvir (IoA), T. von Hippel (U. Wisc.), NASA
Explanation:
Galaxies are made up
of stars, but are all stars found within galaxies?
Using the Hubble Space Telescope,
researchers exploring
the Virgo Cluster of galaxies have now found about 600
red giant stars adrift in intergalactic space.
Above is an artist's vision of the sky from a hypothetical planet
of such a lonely sun.
The night sky on a world orbiting an intergalactic star
would be a stark contrast to Earth's - which features
a spectacle of stars, all members of
our own Milky Way galaxy.
As suggested by the illustration, a setting swollen red sun
would leave behind a dark sky flecked only with faint, fuzzy,
apparitions of
Virgo Cluster galaxies.
Possibly ejected from their home galaxies during
galaxy-galaxy collisions, these isolated suns
may well represent part of a large,
previously unseen stellar population,
filling the space between
Virgo Cluster galaxies.
H. Ferguson (STScI), N. Tanvir (IoA), T. von Hippel (U. Wisc.), NASA
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Based on Astronomy Picture
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