Hubble View of 'Comet Galaxy' in Abell 2667
While looking at the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, astronomers found an odd-looking spiral galaxy (shown here in the upper left hand corner of the image) that ploughs through the cluster after being accelerated to at least 3.5 million kmh-1 by the enormous combined gravity of the cluster's dark matter, hot gas and hundreds of galaxies.
The image was taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in October 2001 and is a composite of three observations through a blue filter (F450W, 12 000 seconds), a green filter (F606W, 4000 seconds) and a near-infrared filter (F814W, 4000 seconds).
Last Update: 1 September 2019