Hubble Space Telescope Revisits NGC 4388

NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided a remarkable new image of the highly tilted spiral galaxy NGC 4388.

NGK 4388 located approximately 59 million light years away in the constellation Virgo.

This galaxy was discovered by British astronomer Sir William Herschel on April 17, 1784.

Also known as LEDA 40581 and IRAS 12232+1256, it has a diameter 120,000 light years.

It is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster, a group of more than 2,000 galaxies.

NGC 4388 has a bright, energetic core and is therefore classified as an active galaxy.

“NGC 4388 is tilted at an extreme angle from our vantage point, giving us an almost edge-on view,” the Hubble astronomers wrote in a statement.

“This perspective reveals an interesting feature that was not visible in the previous Hubble image of this galaxy. released in 2016: The plume of gas from the galactic core seen here erupts from the galaxy's disk towards the lower right corner of the image.”

“But where did this outflow come from and why does it glow?”

“The answer probably lies in the huge regions separating the Virgo cluster galaxies.”

“Although the space between galaxies appears empty, it is actually occupied by hot balls of gas called the intracluster medium.”

“As NGC 4388 travels within the cluster, it passes through the intracluster environment.”

“The pressure from the hot gas inside the cluster pushes the gas out of NGC 4388's disk, causing it to be pulled behind as NGC 4388 moves.”

“The source of the energy that ionizes this gas cloud and causes it to glow is more uncertain,” they noted.

“We suspect that some of the energy comes from the center of the galaxy, where the supermassive black hole has turned the gas around it into a superheated disk.”

“The radiant radiation from this disk may ionize gas closest to the galaxy, while shock waves may be responsible for ionizing filaments of gas further away.”