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This is the spiral galaxy ESO 137-001, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, we'll call
it ESO for short.
And it's absolutely beautiful!
The galaxy is part of the Norma cluster and is around 200 million light years away from
the Milky Way.
What it the image shows is a stream of gas lit up by X-Rays in a process called ram pressure
stripping.
So, what is happening here? Well ESO is traveling through a galaxy cluster, which is called
Abell 3627, where there's a lot of superheated gas.
That superheated gas is stripping ESO of it own gas - basically tearing it away as it
moves through space.
There's so much force being exerted on the galaxy that the disc of gas and dust appears
to bend and the cluster could be strong enough to bend ESO.
It's like a massive cosmic tug of war but the European Space Agency reckon ESO's gravitational
pull is strong enough to hold on to the majority of it's dust.
Either way, it looks absolutely amazing!