The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a detailed image of a spectacular part of the Coma cluster, a structure of over a thousand galaxies bound together by gravity.
This Hubble image shows part of the Coma cluster of galaxies. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
The Coma cluster, also known as Abell 1656, lies in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, about 300 million light-years away from Earth.
Many of the galaxies in the cluster are ellipticals, as is NGC 4860, the brighter of the two galaxies dominating this Hubble image.
However, the outskirts of the cluster also host younger spiral galaxies that proudly display their swirling arms.
Again, this image shows a wonderful example of such a galaxy in the shape of NGC 4858, which can be seen to the left of its bright neighbor and which stands out on account of its unusual, tangled, fiery appearance.
NGC 4858 is special; rather than being a simple spiral, it is something called a ‘galaxy aggregate,’ which is a central galaxy surrounded by a handful of luminous knots of material that seem to stem from it, extending and tearing away and adding to or altering its overall structure.
The galaxy is also experiencing an extremely high rate of star formation, possibly triggered by an earlier interaction with another galaxy.
As we see it, NGC 4858 is forming stars so frantically that it will use up all of its gas long before it reaches the end of its life.
The color of its bright knots indicates that they are formed of hydrogen, which glows in various shades of bright red as it is energized by the many young, hot stars lurking within.
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