Astronomy Chandra Spots Plume in Galaxy Cluster Image credit: Chandra The latest photograph released from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows a long plume of gas and dust wrapped around the Centauris galaxy cluster. Astronomers are puzzled about what the plume is; although, they know it has the same mass as 1 billion suns and is several million degrees cooler than its surroundings. One possibility is that the plume consists of a trail of debris stripped off another galaxy which fell into the cluster.

Jan 30, 2002, 7:17pm