UGC 6697 in Abell 1367: A starburst galaxy located in the galaxy cluster Abell 1367, about 300 million light years from Earth.
Caption: This image is a composite (X-ray, blue and optical, red & green) of the galaxy UGC 6697. The X-rays reveal a sharp edge on the lower left that is inside the optical edge of the galaxy, and a long tail extending to the upper right beyond the optical galaxy. These features suggest that the density of the hot gas that pervades the galaxy cluster has compressed clouds of cool gas in the galaxy and triggered a burst of star formation. Massive new stars formed in the compressed gas and over the course of 10 million years exploded as supernovas. This activity heated the gas in the galaxy to produce the X-rays and optical light seen as the bright blue-green glow in the image. The light from stars is shown in red.
Scale: Image is 3 x 2.8 arcmin
Chandra X-ray Observatory ACIS Image
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