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More Images of Fornax Cluster
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Illustration of Fornax Cluster
This illustration depicts the motions of a gas cloud in the core of the Fornax cluster and a group of galaxies on the outskirts of the cluster. A collision between the cluster core and the group will occur in a few billion years. The Fornax core and the galaxy group may lie along part of a large filamentary structure of dark matter (shown as a faint gray structure) that is collapsing and flowing in toward a common center. The swept back appearance of the gas in the core of the cluster is due to its motion through the lower density gas spread over a much larger volume.
(Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)
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Chandra X-ray Image of Fornax Cluster, Labeled
Chandra's mosaic of images of the Fornax cluster reveals that the vast cloud
of ten-million-degree Celsius gas around the giant elliptical galaxy at the
cluster's core (labeled "NGC 1399") with a swept-back cometary shape that
extends for more than half a million light years. This geometry suggests
that the hot gas cloud is moving through a larger, but less dense cloud of
gas that creates an intergalactic headwind. The core motion, combined with
optical observations of the motion of a group of galaxies falling toward the
core, indicates that the cluster lies along a large, unseen, filamentary
structure composed mostly of dark matter. Most galaxies, gas, and dark
matter in the universe are thought to be concentrated in such filaments, and
galaxy clusters are thought to form where the filaments intersect. Two
other bright galaxies in the cluster, NGC 1404 and NGC 1387, are also,
labeled.
Scale: Image is 47 arcmin across
(Credit: NASA/CXC/Columbia/C. Scharf et al.)
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DSS Optical Image of Fornax Cluster
This Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) image shows Fornax, a nearby galaxy cluster about 65 million light years from Earth, in visible light. The box marks the approximate field of view shown in Chandra's image.
Scale: Image is 4 degrees per side
(Credit: Pal.Obs. DSS)
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Chandra X-ray Images of Fornax Cluster, Medium & High Energies
The nearby galaxy cluster Fornax is facing an enormous intergalactic "headwind"
as it is pulled by an underlying superstructure of dark matter,
according to new evidence from Chandra. Astronomers think that most galaxies, gas and dark matter in the
universe are concentrated in such structures, and galaxy clusters are
formed where these structures intersect. These two Chandra images of the Fornax cluster show the medium (green) and high (red) energies.
Scale: Image is 47 arcmin across
(Credit: NASA/CXC/Columbia/C. Scharf et al.)
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Chandra X-ray Image with Scale Bar
Scalebar = 12 arcmin
(Credit: NASA/CXC/Columbia/C. Scharf et al.)
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Return to Fornax Cluster (08 Sep 04)
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