Recently, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a dwarf galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. Markarian 178 (Mrk 178) is one of over 1500 "Markarian galaxies," a class defined by their unusually strong ultraviolet emission first catalogued by Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian.
This small, cloud-like galaxy is dominated by clusters of young, hot, blue stars, yet it also contains a striking red-tinged region. This reddish glow is the signature of something dramatic happening inside: a population of massive, short-lived Wolf–Rayet stars whose powerful stellar winds carve their imprint directly into the galaxy's spectrum.
