On March 2, 2023, NASA released a space photo taken by the Hubble Telescope, showing a beautiful “jellyfish galaxy” (jellyfish galaxy) in the “seascape” of the Milky Way. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik)
[The Epoch Times, March 06, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Xia Yu) On March 2, NASA released a space photo taken by the Hubble Telescope, showing a beautiful “seascape” of the Milky Way. The “jellyfish galaxy” (jellyfish galaxy), “jellyfish” tentacles swaying in space.
NASA is inPress releaseIn this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a “jellyfish galaxy” hangs in pitch-black darkness with tentacles of stars, said Zhong.
Jellyfish galaxies are spectacular galaxies that undergo a dramatic transformation as they travel supersonic through the core of a dense galaxy cluster. The galaxy featured in the image is called JO201 in the constellation Cetus, named after a sea monster in ancient Greek mythology.
As the jellyfish galaxy moves through interstellar space, gas is slowly stripped away, forming tendril-like trails illuminated by star-forming clumps, NASA said. These blue tendrils float beneath the galaxy’s core, giving it a jellyfish-like appearance.
The jellyfish galaxy’s tentacles extend beyond the bright disk at the galaxy’s core, NASA said. This particular Hubble observation comes from a survey of the size, mass and age of star-forming clumps in the tendrils of the Jellyfish galaxy. Astronomers hope this observation will lead to a better understanding of the link between ram pressure stripping (the process that creates jellyfish tendrils) and star formation. The external drag force tears apart the galactic gas, a process known as ram pressure stripping, leaving extended tentacles to drag the material.
Previous studies have shown that JO201 was originally a huge spiral galaxy that has passed through the giant galaxy cluster Abell 85 at supersonic speed for about 1 billion years.
The NASA press release reads that the image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which was installed during Hubble’s fourth servicing. The camera has a wider field of view than its predecessor and offers higher resolution. WFC3 is a versatile instrument that captures images in ultraviolet, infrared and visible wavelengths, and is the source of some of Hubble’s most spectacular images.
Responsible Editor: Ye Ziwei#