CosmoView Episode 33: Plunging into the Furnace

A doomed galaxy falling into the core of the Fornax Cluster was captured by the Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile. The irregular galaxy NGC 1427A is plunging into the heart of the cluster at 2.2 million  kilometers (or 1.3 million miles) per hour. Over millions of years, the galaxy will be ripped apart by gravitational interactions from the two largest galaxies in the image. Many colorful galaxies of various sizes and shapes paint the background of this image, appearing alongside nearby stars inside our own Milky Way.