Find the mysterious galaxy tail that is 2 times longer than the Milky Way

NASA's Chandra Observatory captured the image of a sparkling celestial object: a hot gas stream of 250,000 light-years long. That is twice the length of our Milky Way galaxy.

This special gas is thought to be the "tail" of a cluster of galaxies called Zwicky 8338 located about 700 million light-years from Earth. With a temperature of about 10 million degrees, the galaxy shoots out X-ray rays that NASA's observatory can detect and transmit signals to astronomers.

The image of the galaxy's "tail" captured by NASA's observatory.

This "tail" was discovered in October 2015 but this latest image shows more specific details. What's interesting about this image is that traces of gas seem to be disconnected from its host galaxy.

"The separation between the galaxy and its tail indicates that this gas stream has completely" abandoned "its galaxy, in fact, the tail has been" cut off "from the galaxy," Thomas Reiprich, author study said.

This image helps scientists better understand galactic systems and processes. For example, apart from hydrogen, this ribbon gas stream also contains heavier elements that can form stars.

2015-12-31