Although the Jellyfish Galaxy JW39 appears tranquil, it is actually floating amidst an extremely hostile environment—a galaxy cluster. Galaxies within these clusters often undergo distortion due to the gravitational forces exerted by larger neighbors, resulting in peculiar shapes. Moreover, the space between the galaxies within a cluster is filled with scorching hot plasma, known as the intracluster medium. This plasma, though tenuous, creates a resistance for galaxies moving through it, similar to swimmers battling a current. This interaction can strip galaxies of their star-forming gas.
This phenomenon, called ram-pressure stripping, is responsible for the trailing tendrils of the Jellyfish Galaxy JW39. As the galaxy traverses the cluster, the pressure from the intracluster medium strips away gas and dust, forming elongated ribbons of star formation that now extend away from the galaxy's disk.
Image Description: The image depicts a spiral galaxy characterized by a bright core surrounded by concentric rings of dark and light dust. The spiral arms, filled with grey dust and glowing blue areas of star formation, encircle the galaxy to form a ring. A portion of one arm extends into a dark thread above the galaxy, with dust trailing off to the right.
Astronomers using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 examined these trailing tendrils in great detail, as they represent an especially extreme environment for star formation. Intriguingly, they discovered that star formation within the "tentacles" of jellyfish galaxies is not significantly different from that in the galaxy disk.
Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik, and the GASP team
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