Orphan stars found in long galaxy tail

This composite image shows a tail that has been created as a galaxy plunges into the galaxy cluster Abell 3627. X-rays from Chandra (blue) and optical light (white and red) from the SOAR telescope show that as the galaxy plummets, it sheds material and forming stars behind it in a tail that stretches over 200,000 light years long. This result demonstrates that stars can form well outside of their parent galaxy. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MSU/M. Sun et al. Optical: SOAR/MSU/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil/M. Sun et al.