The most terrifying 'cannonball' ever flew past NASA's telescope

NASA has just released unique images of IC 3225, a giant object that is behaving unusually 100 million light years from Earth.

According to NASA, IC 3225 is one of more than 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. It is a spiral galaxy - the same type as the Milky Way that Earth resides in - but it behaves like. a comet.

In data recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope, developed by NASA and co-operated with ESA (European Space Agency), it is like a bullet fired from a cannon, hurtling through space.

The speed of IC 3225's dive was so terrifying that its shape was distorted, turning into a teardrop shape with a tail behind it like a comet.

Galaxy IC 3225 is rushing like a comet across the Hubble telescope's view - (Photo: NASA).

NASA explains that the density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, called the "intra-cluster medium ." Meanwhile, the cluster's extreme mass causes Virgo's galaxies to hurtle around its center in a number of very rapid orbits.

Piercing through the thick intracluster medium, especially near the cluster's center, creates enormous "piercing pressure" on the moving galaxies, removing gas from them as they move.

As a galaxy moves through space, the gas and dust that make up the medium within the cluster create resistance to the galaxy's motion, putting pressure on the galaxy.

This pressure — called ram pressure — can strip the galaxy of star-forming gas and dust, slowing or even stopping the creation of new stars.

Conversely, that pressure could also cause other parts of the galaxy to compress, which could promote star formation.

The 3225 IC is not too close to the core of the cluster and may have undergone ram pressure stripping in the past.

It appears compressed on one side, with more pronounced star formation, while the opposite end is stretched out, leading astronomers to suspect that it also had a recent encounter with another galaxy.

This increased the level of distortion and may also be the reason why the IC 3225 was so violently shot.

"This warped galaxy is a reminder of the incredible forces at work on astronomical scales that can move and reshape entire galaxies, " NASA concluded.