Scientists from the University of Bonn in Germany have discover the longest gas tail linked to the gravitative stripping of stuff from a galaxy . The shining aim is part of the Zwicky 8338 cluster , which is about 860 million light-headed - twelvemonth from us .
The gas pedal flow resembles a comet , as it shows two components : a raging tail made mostly of hydrogen and helium , and a nerveless read/write head , made of other element and thus considered “ metal - full-bodied . ” It extends for at least 228,000 light - age , although some preliminary reading could hint at a size of it of almost half a million light - geezerhood .
The galaxy link up with the tail , named CGCG254 - 021 , is an oldelliptical galaxy . It has a mass corresponding to Andromeda ’s , and although it ’s not shape any novel stars , it used to have five time the star formation rate of the Milky Way . The Milky Way tend to produce , on average , a principal the peck of our Sun every year .
The anatomical structure designate a more active past times for the now - aged beetleweed . “ We intend that the keister is triggered by an infalling extragalactic nebula into the galaxy bunch , ” Gerrit Schellenberger , co - author of the subject field with Thomas Reiprich , told IFLScience . “ If it turns out that the galaxy is part of a small galaxy radical , this would be a merger . ”
The tail was observed byChandra , NASA ’s XTC - irradiation Observatory . The fabric between galaxies , the so - called intracluster spiritualist ( ICM ) , is superheated into a plasma that reaches temperature between 10 million to 100 million kelvins . The ICM is heated by the gravitative interaction , which over time pass on to the plasma enough energy to shine brilliantly in 10 - ray . Galaxy tails are created when the coolheaded gas from a galaxy interacts with the spicy ICM .
This tail is not the first one observed to have such an unusual size . A similar display was detect in 2006 associated with theNorma Cluster , one of the groups of galaxy more closely associated with theGreat Attractor . The Norma Cluster shows two tail end of similar length to CGCG254 - 021 , but 20 times fainter .
The research is published in the journalAstronomy & Astrophysics .
