Astronomers have observed a galaxy within a cluster that has two streams of superheated gas crossing one another, and which could lead to the creation of a new cosmic structure.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory found a stream of hot gas over 1.6 million lightyears long trailing behind a galaxy within galaxy cluster Zwicky 8338 (Z8338)
This tail is almost like that of a comet, trailing behind the galaxy and produced by galactic material being stripped away by hot gas through which the galaxy is moving in deep space.
What's more, the tail has split into two streams, and the streams are crossing one another.
More amazing Chandra observations
Galaxy cluster Z8338 explained
Galaxy cluster Z8338 is 670 million lightyears from Earth and the product of two smaller galaxy clusters having collided a long time ago.
This merging motion has produced a chaotic mixture of individual galaxies, hot cosmic gas and powerful shock waves.
In the composite image below, X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple show the multimillion-degree gas.
Chandra data shows this gas trailing behind the moving galaxies.
Optical data from the Dark Energy Survey at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile shows the individual galaxies.
The vertical tail in the image of Z8338 is 800,000 lightyears long, and astronomers think the gas in that tail is being stripped away as the galaxy moves through the cluster.
The head of the tail is a cloud of cool gas 100,000 light-years away from the galaxy, and this tail is also separated into two parts.
Astronomers infer the detachment of the tail from the large galaxy was caused by another, longer tail crossing through it.
This suggests that a cloud of detached gas such as this could survive for at least 30 million years: enough time for new stars and planets to form within it.
Read the full paper at academic.oup.com/mnras/article/525/1/1365/7239302.
