Hubble Captures Gas Escaping Sideways Spiral Galaxy NGC 4388 in Virgo Cluster

An image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows gas being stripped from the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4388, which is about 60 million light-years away and lies in the Virgo cluster. The image shows a glowing plume of gas streaming from the galaxy's disk as it moves through the hot intracluster medium that fills the space between galaxies. This unexpected feature, not seen in previous Hubble images, highlights the combined effects of the galaxy's motion and energetic processes at its centre, where a supermassive black hole likely powers part of the ionisation seen in the gas.

Hot Cluster Gas and Black Hole Strip Material from Galaxy NGC 4388

According to a NASA/ESA report, NGC 4388's movement through the Virgo cluster causes pressure from hot intracluster gas to strip material from the galaxy's disk. The luminous plume is partly powered by radiation from the galaxy's central black hole, with shock waves potentially ionising gas further afield. The new picture uses several wavelengths and makes these filaments stand out even more, which will help ongoing research on galaxies with active black holes.
Seen almost edge-on, NGC 4388 provides a rare glimpse of how the cosmic web strips galactic gas from galaxies.

Multi-Wavelength Observations of NGC 4388 Reveal Black Hole-Driven Galactic Plumes

Studying such plumes is enabling astronomers to build a picture of galaxy evolution, and of the effect their central supermassive black holes are having on the surrounding material.

By multi-wavelength studies, data averaged from many observing programs was combined in the image, illustrating how this new facility will have access to hidden structures. With NGC 4388 already on the move in Virgo, such observations suggest a rich interplay between galaxies and their environments.