What happens when a galaxy falls in with the wrong crowd? Under the gravitational grasp of a large gang of galaxies, called the Fornax cluster, the irregular galaxy NGC 1427A is plunging into the group at 600 km s-1. Located some 62 million light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Fornax, NGC 1427A shows numerous hot, blue stars in this image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.
While the Fornax cluster contains hundreds of individual galaxies, there is a considerable amount of gas lying between them. When the gas within NGC 1427A collides with the Fornax gas, it is compressed to the point that it starts to collapse under its own gravity. This leads to the formation of the myriad of new stars seen across NGC 1427A, which give the galaxy an overall arrowhead shape that appears to point towards the upper right, in the direction of the galaxy's high-velocity motion. Image: Courtesy NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team [STScI/AURA].