Hubble photographs a galactic tail 260,000 light years long

NASA took to its Hubble Space Telescope Twitter account to tease upcoming research to be conducted by the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA explains in the above post that its Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of the galaxy ESO 137-001, which resides in the constellation of the Southern Triangle and the Abell 3627 cluster. NASA explains that ESO 137 -001 slowly sinks into a galaxy cluster that rids it of hot gases, creating a galactic tail that spans some 260,000 light-years.

Notably, when viewed in visible light, the galaxy looks like a “astonished” with large blue ribbons of young stars forming the legs of the aquatic animal. In addition, NASA explains that once Webb is fully calibrated and operational, the Next Generation Space Telescope will be pointed at ESO 137-001 to study this strange galaxy and how stars form in the galactic tail. Read more about this galaxy from NASA check out this link here.