Hubble Captures Cosmic Bloodbath
A collection of images have been collected and shared this week by the Hubble space telescope which depict what's essentially a cosmic bloodbath. The team responsible for the release of the images describe the massacre of the galaxy known as ESO 137-001, one being torn asunder by a process known as ram pressure stripping. It's a violent process.
As ESO 137-001 moves through galaxy cluster Abell 3627, it's ripped to shreds. Abell 3627 is ripping this galaxy spiral's guts out, effectively, as ram pressure stripping takes place. This process includes a drag force felt by objects moving through fluid, in this case superheated gas.
These superheated gasses exert massive amounts of force which, in this case, is pulling dust from the gravitational pull of the galaxy. The "stripping" is pulling pieces of the galaxy out from inside – that's the brown you see in the image near the spiral.
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These images were captured with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). At the heart of a galaxy cluster, superheated gasses are lurking. It's there that a poor galaxy like ESO 137-001 will find a ripping.
Meanwhile NASA has had massive cuts made to its budget this year, placing its cash well below that which Facebook tossed down to own WhatsApp. The WhatsApp price is closer to $19 billion (with stock) while NASA will receive $17.460 billion, or a $186 million dollar cut from the last fiscal year. The truth is harsh.