{"id":217844,"date":"2010-01-23T14:59:49","date_gmt":"2010-01-23T19:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/?p=6505"},"modified":"2010-01-23T14:59:49","modified_gmt":"2010-01-23T19:59:49","slug":"beautiful-space-image-%e2%80%94-a-rare-double-tailed-gas-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/217844","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful space image \u2014 a rare double-tailed gas cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here you go<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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MSU’s Megan Donahue was part of an international team of astronomers that viewed this rare double-tailed gas cloud. Their paper on the subject is in the publication Astrophysical Journal. Photo courtesy of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Head below the fold for the release accompanying the image.<\/span><\/p>\n

MSU contributes to new research on star formation<\/h1>\n

EAST LANSING, Mich. \u2014 \u201cCrazy\u201d and \u201ccool\u201d are two of the words Michigan State University astronomer Megan Donahue uses to describe the two distinct \u201ctails\u201d found on a long tail of gas that is believed to be forming stars where few stars have been formed before.<\/p>\n

Donahue was part of an international team of astronomers that viewed the gas tail with a very long, new observation made by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and detailed it in a paper published this month in the publication Astrophysical Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe double tail is very cool \u2013 that is, interesting \u2013 and ridiculously hard to explain,\u201d said Donahue, a professor in MSU\u2019s Department of Physics and Astronomy. \u201cIt could be two different sources of gas or something to do with magnetic fields. We just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is also unusual is the gas tail, which is more than 200,000 light years in length, extends well outside any galaxy. It is within objects such as this that new stars are formed, but usually within the confines of a galaxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system is really crazy because where we\u2019re seeing the star formation is well away from any galaxy,\u201d Donahue said. \u201cStar formation happens primarily in the disks of galaxies. What we\u2019re seeing here is very unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

This gas tail was originally spotted by astronomers three years ago using a multitude of telescopes, including NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the SOuthern Astrophysical Research telescope, a Chilean-based observatory in which MSU is one of the partners. The new observations show a second tail, and a fellow galaxy, ESO 137-002, that also has a tail of hot X-ray-emitting gas.<\/p>\n

How these newly formed stars came to be in this particular place remains a mystery as well. Astronomers theorize this gas tail might have \u201cpulled\u201d star-making material from nearby gases, creating what some have called \u201corphan stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis system continues to surprise us as we get better observations of it,\u201d Donahue said.<\/p>\n

The gas tail is located in the southern hemisphere near a constellation called Triangulum Australe, in a giant cluster of galaxies called Abell 3627. It is associated with a galaxy known as ESO 137-001 which is about 219 million light years from our own Milky Way Galaxy.<\/p>\n

Star formation is a continuous process throughout the universe, where there are estimated to be billions of galaxies, each of which contains billions of stars. Stars are formed from clouds of dusty, cool, dense molecular gas. Molecular gas clouds prefer to inhabit galaxies, particularly the disks of galaxies like the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

Our sun, a star located within the Milky Way Galaxy, is an average-size star estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here you go: MSU’s Megan Donahue was part of an international team of astronomers that viewed this rare double-tailed gas cloud. Their paper on the subject is in the publication Astrophysical Journal. Photo courtesy of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Head below the fold for the release accompanying the image. MSU contributes to new research on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4050,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4050"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}