Explanation:
Like
grains of sand on a cosmic beach,
individual stars of barred
spiral galaxy NGC 1313
are resolved in
this
sharp composite from the Hubble Space Telescope's
Advanced Camera for Surveys
(ACS).
The inner region of the galaxy
is pictured, spanning about 10,000 light-years.
Hubble's unique ability to distinguish individual stars in the
14 million light-year distant galaxy
has been used to
unravel
the fate of star clusters whose bright young
stars are spread through the disk of the galaxy as the
clusters dissolve.
The exploration of stars and clusters in external galaxy NGC 1313
offers clues to star formation and star
cluster evolution
in our own Milky Way.
