Zoom on NGC 4402

Zooming in on NGC 4402, an edge-on spiral galaxy where extremely hot gas within the galaxy is literally shaping its destiny. Stripped of their gas and dust, galaxies such as this are often robbed of their ability to produce stars. Some telltale signs of this phenomenon — called ram pressure stripping — are clear: a curved stellar disc and dramatic, wispy dust lanes that are being forced out of the galaxy.