Comet-like Clouds in the Cartwheel Galaxy
Explanation:
In a cartwheel-shaped galaxy far, far away, huge
comet-shaped clouds of
gas have been discovered racing through the nucleus at about
700,000 miles per hour.
The aptly named Cartwheel Galaxy
is actually about 500 million
light years distant, its suggestive shape created by
a head-on collision
with a smaller galaxy.
Researchers studying
this disrupted galaxy using Hubble Space Telescope data
recently discovered
immense gaseous structures with heads
a few hundred light years across and tails thousands of light years long.
The fast moving dense gas clouds appear as blue
comet-like shapes, mostly along the upper edge of the nucleus, in
this false color close-up of the Cartwheel's central region.
Their shape, like a boat's bow wave,
was probably created by the dense clouds moving through
less dense material.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
