Portrait of a galactic jellyfish

Esahubble_potw2312a_1024

esahubble_potw2312a March 20th, 2023

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team 

The galaxy JW100 features prominently in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with streams of star-forming gas dripping from the disc of the galaxy like streaks of fresh paint. These tendrils of bright gas are formed by a process called ram pressure stripping, and their resemblance to dangling tentacles has led astronomers to refer to JW100 as a ‘jellyfish’ galaxy. It is located in the constellation Pegasus, over 800 million light-years away. Ram pressure stripping occurs when galaxies encounter the diffuse gas that pervades galaxy clusters. As galaxies plough through this tenuous gas it acts like a headwind, stripping gas and dust from the galaxy and creating the trailing streamers that prominently adorn JW100. The bright elliptical patches in the image are other galaxies in the cluster that hosts JW100. As well as JW100’s bright tendrils, this image also contains a remarkably bright area of diffuse light towards the top of this image which contains two bright blotches at its core. This is the core of IC 5338, the brightest galaxy in the galaxy cluster, known as a cD galaxy. It’s not unusual for cD galaxies to exhibit multiple nuclei, as they are thought to grow by consuming smaller galaxies, the nuclei of which can take a long time to be absorbed. The bright points of light studding its outer fringes are a rich population of globular clusters.  This observation took advantage of the capabilities of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, and is part of a sequence of observations designed to explore star formation in the tendrils of jellyfish galaxies. These tendrils represent star formation under extreme conditions, and could help astronomers understand the process of star formation elsewhere in the universe. [Image Description: A thin spiral galaxy is seen edge-on in the lower right. Its bulge and arms are very bright, mixing reddish and bluish light. Patchy blue trails extend below it, resembling tentacles, made from star-forming regions. Six small, reddish elliptical galaxies are scattered around. A very large elliptical galaxy with two cores sits by the top of the frame.] Links First science paper in the Astrophysical Journal Second science paper in the Astrophysical Journal Pan: Portrait of a galactic jellyfish

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2312a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IC 5337 IC 5338
Esahubble_potw2312a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 23h 36m 26.7s
DEC = 21° 8’ 43.5”
Orientation
North is 65.5° CW
Field of View
2.7 x 2.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Pegasus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha + N II) 680.0 nm
Yellow Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (U) 336.0 nm
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 275.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Yellow
Red
Cyan
Blue
Purple
Esahubble_potw2312a_1280
×
ID
potw2312a
Subject Category
Subject Name
IC 5337, IC 5338
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team 
Release Date
2023-03-20T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2312a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Yellow, Red, Cyan, Blue, Purple
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
H-alpha + N II, I, H-alpha, V, U, UV
Central Wavelength
680, 814, 656, 606, 336, 275
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
354.11107433593565, 21.145417907399413
Reference Dimension
4057.0, 3397.0
Reference Pixel
2028.5, 1698.5
Scale
-1.1104373970076568e-05, 1.1104373970076568e-05
Rotation
-65.479999999999976
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2312a
Metadata Date
2022-05-28T02:48:07+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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