Chandra Release - July 21, 2026

Visual Description: Red Potato Galaxy (MQN01 J004131.9-493704)

This release includes a composite image featuring two galaxies in the early universe, some 11.7 billion light-years from Earth.

Near the center of the image is a small, irregular, pale yellow oval with a red outer ring, in the heart of a bright, hazy red cloud. This is a galaxy nicknamed the “red potato” by astronomers studying this region of the early universe. Those astronomers expected the red potato to be producing scores of new stars. When they instead discovered relatively low star growth, they looked to a neighboring galaxy for reasons why.

To our upper right of the red potato and its hazy red cloud of gas, is a neighboring galaxy in a pool of blue haze. This galaxy is also pale yellow in color, but has a less defined, less tuber-like shape than its counterpart. The blue pool represents X-rays from a growing supermassive black hole in the heart of the galaxy. The pool has a stubby tail, or X-ray jet, pointed toward the red cloud, and faint pockets of red and blue overlap within the composite image.

Astronomers now believe that the X-ray jet from the neighboring supermassive black hole may have struck the red gas cloud around the red potato. This may be causing turbulence within the gas cloud, preventing the gas from falling onto the red potato. Without the ingredients from that gas, new stars struggle to grow.