Jellyfish galaxy

Not to be confused with Jellyfish Nebula.

A jellyfish galaxy is a type of galaxy found in galaxy clusters. They are characterised by ram pressure stripping of gas from the affected galaxy by the intracluster medium, triggering starbursts along a tail of gas.^[1]

Ram pressure stripping of gas from a galaxy in ESO 137-001.

Jellyfish galaxies have been seen in a number of galaxy clusters including the Hydra Cluster, Abell 2125 (redshift z=0.20; ACO 2125 C153);^[2][1] Abell 2667 (z=0.23; G234144−260358);^[2][1] Abell 2744 (z=0.31; ACO 2744 Central Jellyfish;^[3] HLS001427–30234/ACO 2744 F0083;^[2][1][3][4] GLX001426–30241 / ACO 2744 F0237 / ACO 2733 CN104;^[3][4] MIP001417–302303 / ACO 2744 F1228;^[3][4] HLS001428–302334;^[4] GLX001354–302212^[4] ).

Examples

• 
  Jellyfish galaxy JO204 taken by ESO's MUSE instrument.^[5]
• 
  Jellyfish galaxy in SDSS J1110+6459, visible next to the cluster and apparently dripping bright blue material.^[6]
• 
  NASA/ESA Hubble image of galaxy JW100 with streams of star-forming gas dripping from the disc of the galaxy like streaks of fresh paint. These tendrils of bright gas are formed by ram pressure stripping, and their resemblance to dangling tentacles led astronomers to refer it as a ‘jellyfish’ galaxy.

References

1. Harald Ebeling; Lauren N. Stephenson; Alastair C. Edge (1 November 2013). "Jellyfish: Evidence of Extreme Ram-pressure Stripping in Massive Galaxy Clusters". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 781 (2) (published 15 January 2014): L40. arXiv:1312.6135. Bibcode:2014ApJ...781L..40E. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/781/2/L40. S2CID 54018558. L40.
2. Bob Yirka (30 January 2014). "Hubble images spawn theory of how spiral galaxies turn into jellyfish before becoming elliptical". phys.org.
3. Owers, Matt S.; Couch, Warrick J.; Nulsen, Paul E. J.; Randall, Scott W. (13 December 2011). "Shocking Tails in the Major Merger Abell 2744". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 750 (1) (published 16 April 2012): L23. arXiv:1204.1052. Bibcode:2012ApJ...750L..23O. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/750/1/L23. S2CID 118365696. L23.
4. Rawle, T. D.; Altieri, B.; Egami, E.; Pérez-González, P. G.; Richard, J.; Santos, J. S.; Valtchanov, I.; Walth, G.; Bouy, H.; Haines, C. P.; Okabe, N. (4 March 2014). "Star formation in the massive cluster merger Abell 2744". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 442 (1) (published 4 June 2014): 196–206. arXiv:1405.1046. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.442..196R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu868.
5. "Supermassive Black Holes Feed on Cosmic Jellyfish - ESO's MUSE instrument on the VLT discovers new way to fuel black holes". www.eso.org. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
6. "Of bent time and jellyfish". www.spacetelescope.org. Retrieved 12 November 2018.