What is a starburst galaxy?
Despite the name, a starburst galaxy has nothing to do with fruit-flavored candy. A starburst galaxy is one which is undergoing a high rate of star formation, often ten times what is seen in our own Milky Way galaxy. Many astronomers suspect that these galaxies have collided with other galaxies. The disruption of two vast collections of stars interacting with each other triggers shock waves that compress gas clouds enough to form new stars. These hot young stars often have violent winds, and the ensemble of such winds produces a superwind that blasts material out of these galaxies. This superwind also triggers even more star formation. The starburst phase of a galaxy is short-lived in astronomical terms, perhaps only tens of millions of years. The rapid star formation uses up so much of the interstellar gas in the galaxy that little is left to form more stars. During this wild outburst, however, these starburst galaxies provide a chance for astronomers to study stellar evolution in act
