Making head or tail of a galactic landscape

Astronomers have used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to capture a dramatic image of an enormous tail of hot gas stretching for more than a million light years behind a group of galaxies that is falling into the depths of an even-larger cluster of galaxies. Discoveries like this help astronomers learn about the environment and conditions under which the Universe's biggest structures evolve.

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Source

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Geneva, D. Eckert. Optical: SDSS provided by CDS through Aladin

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Geneva, D. Eckert. Optical: SDSS provided by CDS through Aladin

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Geneva, D. Eckert. Optical: SDSS provided by CDS through Aladin.

Source / Image Courtesy

Abell 2142 is a galaxy cluster, one of the largest structures in the Universe, containing hundreds of galaxies and huge amounts of hot gas.

Chandra captured a smaller galaxy group, with a handful of galaxies, plummeting toward Abell 2142.

Behind this diving galaxy group is a long tail of X-rays extending for over a million light years.