Galaxies: Comet Galaxy (original) (raw)

Comet Galaxy in Abell 2667

This spiral galaxy rushes with 3.5 million km/h through the cluster Abell 2667 and thereby like a comet shows a tail. The galaxy's gas is compressed and many stars are formed there. Could we observe the galaxy like it looks today, we probably would find hardly any gas, but many stars that have been torn away from the galaxy and now float lonely through intergalactic space.

Constellation: Sculptor
Distance: 3.2 billion light-years
Length of the tail: 400 000 light-years

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03/03/2007

Photo: NASA, ESA, and J. -P. Kneib (Laboratorie d'Astrophysique de Marseille)