Fact Sheet
Glowing Galaxies
The X-ray glow of million-degree gas fills the Coma Cluster of galaxies in this image from the ROSAT satellite. The gas is thicker at the center of the cluster. Some of the galaxies are visible as small red or orange points in the image. As galaxies fall toward the center of the cluster, the hot gas between galaxies strips away much of the cold gas inside the galaxies, which deprives them of the raw materials for new stars. [ROSAT/MPE/S. L. Snowden]
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