The Coma cluster is a tumid group of galaxies roughly 320 million clean - days from Earth . Over 1,000 galax are among its fellow member , and Hubble recently focused in on one in particular . Galaxy D100 garnered such attention because it ’s plunging into the core of the cluster , losing its gas as it does so .
The phenomenon is foretell “ ram insistence stripping ” and it is get on D100 prematurely , as the precious fuel for the organisation of newfangled stars is taken away . This gas has ended up in a foresighted tail stretch out of the galaxy , which is being compressed by gravity and pressure level and forming new stars . In a flyspeck gentle area among the red - looking plumage , 200,000 raw star have been pay . The observations are reported in theAstrophysical Journal .
" This galaxy stands out as a particularly extreme example of process common in massive clusters , where a galaxy goes from being a healthy spiral full of star constitution to a ' red and dead galaxy , ' " lead author William Cramer of Yale University said in astatement . " The spiral arms go away , and the galaxy is left with no gas and only old wiz . This phenomenon has been known about for several decades , but Hubble cater the best imagery of galaxies undergo this appendage . "
The gasoline loss began at the edge of the galaxy and is now coming from the cardinal region of D100 . Despite that , the keister of gas is quite peculiar and not like your regular clumpy ram force per unit area stripping . It is corking and lean , stretching for over 200,000 tripping - old age ( twice the size of the Milky Way ) while being just 7,000 light - year across . This whole appendage started roughly 300 million years ago .
" The tail is outstandingly well - delimitate , straight and liquid , and has clear edge , " explain squad member Jeffrey Kenney , also from Yale . " This is a surprisal because a tail like this is not see in most computer simulations . Most galaxies undergoing this process are more of a stack . The clean edges and filamentary structures of the tail paint a picture that magnetized field play a outstanding role in forge it . Computer simulations show that magnetic area form filaments in the tail ’s gas . With no magnetic fields , the quarter is more clumpy than filamentary . "
This stunning moving picture from Hubble has another important feature colligate to ram pressing stripping , a kind of glance of the future if you like . A galaxy called D99 , seen in red in the picture , underwent this process long before D100 . It is now a red and dead galaxy , a similar lot that awaits D100 in a few hundred million age .
