
science & techESA/Hubble
A Hubble image shows a galaxy trailing gas tendrils like a jellyfish drifting through space
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows JO201, a jellyfish galaxy with long tendrils of young stars streaming behind its bright core. As these galaxies move through the gas between galaxies, they are slowly stripped of their own gas, which trails behind them in glowing filaments where new stars form. The galaxy lies in the constellation Cetus, named after a sea monster from Greek mythology. The image was captured by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which works at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. Astronomers observing such tendrils hope to understand how the stripping process, known as ram-pressure stripping, triggers star formation.
Jellyfish galaxies reveal how a galaxy's environment can strip it of the gas it needs to make stars, which helps explain how galaxies evolve over time.
The constellation Cetus is named after a sea monster from ancient Greek mythology.
ESA/Hubble · CC BY 4.0
Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team
