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Hubble sees ‘Comet Galaxy’ being ripped apart by galaxy cluster

2 March 2007

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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with several other ground- and space-based telescopes, has captured a galaxy being ripped apart by a galaxy cluster’s gravitational field and harsh environment. This animation shows the evolution of this process.

Credits: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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Zooming and panning on galaxy cluster Abell 2667.

Credits: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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This animation shows how the tidal forces push and pull the Earth's oceans.

Credits: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, astronomers found an odd-looking spiral galaxy (shown here in the upper left hand corner of the image) that ploughs through the cluster after being accelerated to at least 3.5 million km/h by the enormous combined gravity of the cluster’s dark matter, hot gas and hundreds of galaxies.

The Hubble image was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in October 2001 and is a composite of three observations through a blue filter, a green filter, and a near-infrared filter. ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the twin Keck Telescopes were used for optical spectroscopy and near-infrared photometry, which helped determine the age of the star-forming region. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory were used jointly to confirm that the activity in the 'Comet Galaxy' was due to vigorous star-formation and not a super-massive black hole.

Credits: NASA, ESA, Jean-Paul Kneib (Lab. d’Astrophysique de Marseille)

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This infrared image was taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and shows a part of the galaxy cluster Abell 2667.

The 'Comet Galaxy' is the bright red object seen to the left of the cluster centre. Also seen in the image is a rare giant infrared arc. The banana-shaped arc corresponds to the magnified and distorted image of a distant galaxy that lies behind the cluster’s core.

Credits: NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope

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