Unusual galaxy system found with long, collimated gas and star tail
Astronomers have discovered an unusual galaxy system consisting of a pair of galaxies and a long, highly collimated tail of gas and stars. The tail is associated with a binary galaxy system and is the longest optical galactic tail detected so far. The tail is sufficiently gas-rich to support star formation along its length, even though it originates from an S0/a galaxy, which is expected to be gas-poor. The researchers propose that the tail resulted from a three-body interaction between the galaxies.