MUSE view of the ram-pressure stripped galaxy ESO 137-001

The MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope has provided researchers with the best view yet of a spectacular cosmic crash. Observations reveal for the first time the motion of gas as it is ripped out of the galaxy ESO 137-001 as it ploughs at high speed into a vast galaxy cluster. The results are the key to the solution of a long-standing mystery — why star formation switches off in galaxy clusters.

This picture is in close-to-natural colours, with the red patches being glowing clouds of hydrogen gas.

Note that the upper-left and lower-right parts of this image were filled in using Hubble data.