Abell 1656, Coma Cluster, Composite
A team of astronomers has discovered enormous arms of hot gas in the Coma cluster of galaxies by using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton. These features, which span at least half a million light years, provide insight into how the Coma cluster has grown through mergers of smaller groups and clusters of galaxies to become one of the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity. A new composite image, with Chandra data in pink and optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey appearing in white and blue, features these spectacular arms. In this image, the Chandra data have been processed so extra detail can be seen. The X-ray emission is from multimillion-degree gas and the optical data shows galaxies in the Coma Cluster, which contain only about 1/6 the mass in hot gas. Only the brightest X-ray emission is shown here, to emphasize the arms, but the hot gas is present over the entire field of view. Coma is an unusual galaxy cluster because it contains not one, but two giant elliptical galaxies near its center. Release date September 19, 2013.
Size: 3600px × 3600px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 117, 1656, 2013, 21st, abell, astronomical, astronomy, body, celestial, century, cluster, coma, composite, cosmography, cosmological, cosmology, cosmos, deep, evolution, galaxies, galaxy, heavenly, image, object, sci, science, sky, space, supercluster, universe
