article_snippet: This may be due to these speeding very fast through the cluster, with these plasma left behind in a tail.
article_snippet: ‘One possibility is that this is a huge shockwave, caused when the two clusters ram together supersonically,’ said Dr Jean Eilek of the NRAO.
article_snippet: However, Dr Jean Eilek of the NRAO notes that this could also be a ‘reconnection layer’, where magnetic fields are pushed together until magnetic fields annihilate.
article_snippet: This same process is thought to drive solar flares in our sun, and also Earth’s aurorae.