Thanks to the Chandra X-ray observatory, astronomers have discovered galaxies being pulled by intersecting streams of superheated gas. The interaction between them led to the formation of a new structure.
The discovery was made during the study of the galaxy cluster Z8338. It is located at a distance of 670 million light years from Earth. Z8338 is a chaotic landscape of galaxies, superheated gas, and shock waves (they resemble sonic booms produced by flying at supersonic speeds) arranged in one relatively small region of space.The cluster was formed by the collision of two smaller clusters. Because of this, their constituent galaxies are in constant motion.
Previously, astronomers found a galaxy in Z8338, which has two comet-like tails of about 800 thousand light years (this is eight times the diameter of our Milky Way). They’re made up of hot gas. Now the Chandra telescope has managed to discover that the galaxy next to it also has a pair of tails, the length of which is 1.6 million light years. They were identified due to the X-rays it was emitting. The tails originated as a result of the galaxy losing some of its matter under the influence of the hot gas through which it was passing. This matter then split into two streams.
Researchers now have evidence that this separation was the result of gas streams stretching behind two nearby galaxies that crossed each other. They published an image of Z8338 to support this hypothesis. The violet color corresponds to X-rays emitted by the hot gas.
The image shows that one of the galaxy’s tails has “torn off ”. This happened as a result of its collision with a stream of gas from another galaxy. Astronomers estimated that the cloud formed after the detachment would be able to exist for at least 30 million years. During this time, a new generation of stars and planets may have time to form in it.
Earlier we told you about how astronomers discovered a record-breaking black hole jet.
According to NASA
