Virgo Cluster - Intracluster Medium

Intracluster Medium

As with many other rich galaxy clusters, Virgo's intracluster medium is filled with a hot, rarefied plasma at temperatures of 30 million Kelvin that emits X-Rays, and within it can be found a large number of intergalactic stars (up to 10% of the stars in the cluster), including some planetary nebulae, that it's theorized were expelled from their home galaxies on interactions with other galaxies, as well as some globular clusters, possibly stripped off dwarf galaxies, and even at least one star formation region

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