A strange cosmic starburst was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The dwarf galaxy NGC 1705 shines brightly in a cloud of dazzling light and red clouds in a new Hubble Space Telescope photograph. The tiny, irregularly-shaped galaxy, which is around 17 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pictor, has been dubbed a "cosmic oddity" by the European Space Agency.

NGC 1705 recently went through a "starburst" phase, which means it was forming stars at an abnormally fast pace.

This type of irregular dwarf galaxy has less elements than larger galaxies and is largely made up of hydrogen and helium. They are assumed to be similar to the universe's first galaxies as a result of this.

According to an ESA release, this image was acquired using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to observe a specific light wavelength known as H-alpha. Astronomers hoped to find locations where young, active stars emit ultraviolet light into the gas clouds around them by studying at this wavelength.

The last time Hubble looked at NGC 1705 was in 1999, when astronomers used the telescope's camera (then known as the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2) to study the galaxy's center. These new observations, which make advantage of Hubble's considerably more advanced technology, can provide more detail and a more comprehensive view of the galaxy.