Abell 550, Galaxy Cluster, Composite
Astronomers used Chandra, Hubble, and the Canada-France-Hawaii, and Subaru telescopes to observe Abell 520, which is billion light years away. This finding confirms previous observations of a dark-matter core in the cluster announced in 2007. This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters that is located about billion light years from Earth. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show the hot gas in the colliding clusters colored in green. Optical data from NASA's HST and the CFHT in Hawaii are shown in red, green, and blue. Starlight from galaxies within the clusters, derived from observations by the CFHT and smoothed to show the location of most of the galaxies, is colored orange. The blue-colored areas pinpoint the location of most of the mass in the cluster, which is dominated by dark matter. Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up most of the universe's mass. Release date March 2, 2012.
Size: 4200px × 2701px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 550, 2012, 21st, abell, astronomical, astronomy, body, celestial, century, cluster, collision, composite, cosmography, cosmological, cosmology, cosmos, dark, deep, distribution, evolution, galaxy, heavenly, image, matter, object, science, sky, space, universe
