Abell 1689 galaxy cluster. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1689 overlaid with a dark matter map (purple). Galax

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Abell 1689 galaxy cluster. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1689 overlaid with a dark matter map (purple). Galaxies on the edge of the purple area are distorted by gravitational lensing by matter in the galaxy cluster. Abell 1689 is located in the constellation of Virgo and is around billion light years from Earth. The area seen here is hundreds of thousands of light years across. This image was obtained by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

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Size: 3853px × 3902px
Photo credit: © NASA/ESA/STScI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1689, abell, advanced, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, camera, cluster, dark, einstein, galactic, galaxies, galaxy, gravitational, hst, hubble, intergalactic, lens, lensing, map, matter, optical, ring, space, surveys, telescope, virgo, visible