Hubble views Jellyfish galaxy JO175

Jellyfish galaxy JO175 appears to be suspended in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Located more than 650 million light-years from Earth in the aptly named constellation Telescopium, this galaxy was captured in crystal-clear detail by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. A handful of distant galaxies lurk across the scene, and there are four bright heads. The star is located on the lower right side.

Jellyfish galaxies It gets its unusual name from the tendrils of star-forming gas and dust that trail behind it, much like the tentacles of a jellyfish. These bright tendrils contain clumps of star formation and give the jellyfish galaxies a particularly striking appearance. Contrary to the name given by the oceans, jellyfish galaxies make their homes in them galaxy clustersThe pressure of the weak, superheated plasma that permeates these clusters of galaxies is what pulls the distinctive tendrils of jellyfish galaxies.

Hubble recently completed a deep dive into jellyfish clusters, specifically the star-forming clumps of gas and dust that stud their tendrils. By studying the origins and fates of stars in these clusters, astronomers hoped to better understand the processes that underlie star formation elsewhere in the universe. Interestingly, their research indicates that the formation of stars in the disks of galaxies is similar to them star formation In the extreme conditions Found in the tendrils of jellyfish galaxies.