A jellyfish galaxy adrift

Esahubble_potw2321a_1024

esahubble_potw2321a May 22nd, 2023

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

The jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies over 900 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, and is one of several jellyfish galaxies that Hubble has been studying over the past two years. Despite this jellyfish galaxy’s serene appearance, it is adrift in a ferociously hostile environment; a galaxy cluster. Compared to their more isolated counterparts, the galaxies in galaxy clusters are often distorted by the gravitational pull of larger neighbours, which can twist galaxies into a variety of weird and wonderful shapes. If that was not enough, the space between galaxies in a cluster is also pervaded with a searingly hot plasma known as the intracluster medium. While this plasma is extremely tenuous, galaxies moving through it experience it almost like swimmers fighting against a current, and this interaction can strip galaxies of their star-forming gas. This interaction between the intracluster medium and the galaxies is called ram-pressure stripping, and is the process responsible for the trailing tendrils of this jellyfish galaxy. As JW39 has moved through the cluster the pressure of the intracluster medium has stripped away gas and dust into long trailing ribbons of star formation that now stretch away from the disc of the galaxy. Astronomers using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 studied these trailing tendrils in detail, as they are a particularly extreme environment for star formation. Surprisingly, they found that star formation in the ‘tentacles’ of jellyfish galaxies was not noticeably different from star formation in the galaxy disc. [Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It is large in the centre with a lot of detail visible. The core glows brightly and is surrounded by concentric rings of dark and light dust. The spiral arms are thick and puffy with grey dust and glowing blue areas of star formation. They wrap around the galaxy to form a ring. Part of the arm is drawn out into a dark thread above the galaxy, and dust from the arm trails off to the right.] Links First science paper in the Astrophysical Journal Second science paper in the Astrophysical Journal Pan: A jellyfish galaxy adrift

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2321a/

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 4141
Esahubble_potw2321a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 4m 8.1s
DEC = 19° 12’ 31.9”
Orientation
North is 167.3° CW
Field of View
1.4 x 1.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Coma Berenices

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 275.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (U) 336.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Yellow Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha + NII) 680.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Purple
Blue
Cyan
Yellow
Orange
Red
Esahubble_potw2321a_1280
×
ID
potw2321a
Subject Category
Subject Name
IC 4141
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team
Release Date
2023-05-22T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2321a/
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
Purple, Blue, Cyan, Yellow, Orange, Red
Band
Ultraviolet, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
UV, U, V, H-alpha + NII, I, H-alpha
Central Wavelength
275, 336, 606, 680, 814, 656
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
196.03386066214156, 19.208872374643814
Reference Dimension
2156.0, 2156.0
Reference Pixel
1078.0, 1078.0
Scale
-1.1102104469548397e-05, 1.1102104469548397e-05
Rotation
-167.3199999999994
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
potw2321a
Metadata Date
2023-05-19T01:29:13+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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