The Hubble Space Telescope has captured detailed images of the jellyfish galaxy JO175, located 650 million light-years away. Named after its star-forming branches, recent studies show that star formation in these galaxies is similar to the process in standard galactic disks.

The jellyfish galaxy JO175 appears hanging in this image taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Located 650 million light-years from Earth in the telescope constellation of the same name, this galaxy was captured by Hubble’s crystal-clear Wide Field Camera 3. Several distant galaxies lurk in the scene, with a bright four-pointed star at the lower right.

Jellyfish galaxies get their unusual name from the star-forming tentacles of gas and dust that leave trails behind them like jellyfish tentacles. These bright branches contain clusters of star formation and give jellyfish galaxies a particularly striking appearance. Unlike their ocean-dwelling namesakes, jellyfish galaxies live in galaxy clusters, and the pressure of the diluted superheated plasma that permeates these galaxy clusters is what gives rise to the jellyfish galaxy’s characteristic branches.

Hubble recently took a deep dive into the jellyfish cluster, particularly the clumps of star-forming gas and dust that cover their tentacles. By studying the origin and fate of stars in these clusters, astronomers hoped to better understand the processes underlying star formation in other parts of the universe. Interestingly, their research shows that star formation in galactic disks is similar to star formation in the extreme conditions observed in the branches of jellyfish galaxies.