Early galaxies are dominated by bright clumps, which are larger and more massive than in the local Universe. The star formation activity is strongly influenced and can be even halted by a number of processes, some of which are directly related to the environment in which the galaxy resides. Ram pressure stripping, i.e. the removal of interstellar gas from the disk of star forming galaxies due to the hydrodynamical interaction with the hot intergalactic medium, is one such process and it is believed to have a strong impact on galaxy populations in dense environments such as galaxy groups and, especially, clusters.
IC 3225 is a spiral galaxy approximately 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo.
Otherwise known as LEDA 40111 or UGC 7441, it was discovered on November 4, 1899 by the German astronomer Arnold Schwassmann.
“IC 3225 looks remarkably as if it’s been launched from a cannon, speeding through space like a comet with a tail of gas streaming from its disk behind it,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“The galaxy’s location suggests some causes for this active scene, because IC 3225 is one of over 1,300 members of the Virgo galaxy cluster.”
“The density of galaxies in the Virgo cluster creates a rich field of hot gas between them, the so-called intracluster medium, while the cluster’s extreme mass has its galaxies careening around its centre in some very fast orbits.”
“Ramming through the thick intracluster medium, especially close to the cluster’s center, places an enormous ram pressure on the moving galaxies that strips gas out of them as they go.”
“IC 3225 is not so close to the cluster core right now, but astronomers have deduced that it has undergone this ram pressure stripping in the past,” they noted.
“The galaxy looks as though it’s been impacted by this: it is compressed on one side and there has been noticeably more star formation on this leading edge, while the opposite end is…
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