Galaxies Join Coma Cluster

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Video imagery:

·       Wide Field X-ray & Optical of Coma Cluster and NGC 4839: XMM-Newton: ESA; Optical: SDSS

·       Close-up, X-ray & Optical of NGC 4839: NASA/SAO/Univ. of Alabama/M. S. Mirakhor; Optical: SDSS

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Images appear of planets, galaxies and stars. 

 

Text, News from the universe. 

 

Galaxies join coma cluster. June 15, 2023. 

 

An image appears of a dark spacescape. A blue light surrounds a cluster of stars. 

 

Text, The galaxy group NGC 4839 is on its way to joining the large Coma Cluster of galaxies. 

 

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The smaller group's envelope of hot, X-ray emitting gas is being stripped away as it collides with the cluster's gas, forming a huge tail. 

 

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory confirms the tail is 1.5 million light-years long, the longest ever detected behind a galaxy group. 

 

The image zooms into a bright pink star in the cluster. A pink haze fills the view with a bright spot near the center and stars scattered throughout. 

 

Text, Eventually the tail behind the group will disappear as it merges with the large amount of hot gas already present in the Coma Cluster. 

 

This news was brought to you in part by the Chandra x-ray center in Cambridge, M.A.