The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a new detail in the spiral galaxy NGC 4388, located 60 million light-years away from Earth in the Virgo constellation. The image shows an elongated gas tail extending from the center of the galaxy and stretching beyond its boundaries.
Scientists speculate that this formation emerged due to the movement of the galaxy through the intergalactic medium with heated gas. Under the influence of pressure from this medium, gas is expelled from the galaxy's disk, forming a tail behind it.
New observations and scientists' hypotheses
It is still unclear what exactly causes the glowing gas cloud. Some scientists believe that a portion of the energy may be supplied by a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, which creates a superhot accretion disk. Radiation from this disk may ionize the gas around the galaxy.
The photograph of galaxy NGC 4388 was created based on new observations in different light wavelengths. This galaxy is part of the Virgo cluster, which contains over a thousand galaxies and is the nearest major galaxy cluster to our Milky Way.
As a result of the new observations, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an elongated gas tail in the spiral galaxy NGC 4388, possibly formed by the influence of the intergalactic medium. Scientists are still considering various hypotheses regarding the energy source for this phenomenon and continue to study the details of the galaxy to better understand its structure and evolution.