National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Hubble Space Telescope captured a "peaceful view" of a jellyfish galaxy adrift 900 million lightyears away in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Taking to Instagram, NASA shared the new image showing various aspects of the spiral galaxy, particularly its trailing tendrils. In the caption, the space agency said that even though the JW39 galaxy appears calm, it is really suspended within a galaxy cluster that is bursting with hot plasma.
Take a look at the image below:
In the picture, the JW38 jellyfish galaxy's luminous centre is clearly visible, and it is encircled by concentric rings of light and dark material. NASA believes that the spiral structures of the galaxy are "thick and puffy" with "grey dust". The glowing blue spots, on the other hand, represent areas of star formation, the space agency explained.
"In spite of the calm scene, this galaxy is in the clutches of a galaxy cluster, where it is being twisted and distorted by the gravitational pull of its larger neighbors," NASA wrote in the caption of the post.
"Another threat lies in the space between galaxies in a cluster, searing hot plasma known as the intracluster medium, capable of stripping star-forming gas from the galaxy causing the tendrils to stretch out from the galaxy," it added.
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The US space agency shared the stunning picture of the jellyfish galaxy just a few hours ago and since then it has accumulated more than 300,000 likes. Internet users flooded the comment section with lovestruck and fire emojis.
"Quite admirable," wrote one user. "It must be wonderful to see the magnitude of this enormity!" said another.
"Beautiful galaxy," commented another. "I can't believe it, there are things like this out there," added a fourth stunned user.
