Hubble Space Telescope Revisits NGC 4388

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured breathtaking new images of the intriguingly tilted spiral galaxy NGC 4388.

NGC 4388 is situated roughly 59 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

This galaxy was first identified by British astronomer Sir Wilhelm Herschel on April 17, 1784.

Also referred to as LEDA 40581 and IRAS 12232+1256, it has a diameter of 120,000 light-years.

NGC 4388 is among the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, which comprises over 2,000 galaxies.

Classified as an active galaxy, NGC 4388 features a bright and energetic core.

“NGC 4388 is tilted at a steep angle relative to our viewpoint, appearing almost face-on,” Hubble astronomers mentioned in a statement.

“This angle allows us to observe intriguing features that were not visible in earlier Hubble images of the galaxy released in 2016. A gas plume is seen emanating from the galaxy’s core, extending outward from the galaxy’s disk towards the bottom right corner of the image.”

“But where did this outflow originate? What causes it to shine?”

“The answer seems to lie in the vast spaces that separate the galaxies within the Virgo Cluster.”

“Though it may seem like the void between galaxies is empty, this area is actually filled with clusters of hot gas known as the intracluster medium.”

“As NGC 4388 traverses the intracluster medium, it punches through this gas.”

“The pressure from the hot intracluster gas forces material out of NGC 4388’s disk, trailing it as the galaxy moves.”

“The origin of the energy that ionizes this gas cloud and produces its glow remains uncertain,” the researchers observed.

“We suspect that some energy may originate from the galaxy’s center, where a supermassive black hole accelerates the surrounding gas to create a superheated disk.”

“The intense radiation emitted from this disk could ionize the gas nearest to the galaxy, while shock waves could cause filaments of gas farther out to become ionized.”