Abell 1689, shown in this composite image, is a massive cluster of
galaxies located about 2.3 billion light years away that shows signs
of merging activity. Hundred-million-degree gas detected by NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown as purple in this image, while
galaxies from optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are
colored yellow. The X-ray emission has a smooth appearance, unlike
other merging systems such as the Bullet Cluster or MACS
J0025.4-1222. The temperature pattern across Abell 1689 is more
complicated, however, possibly requiring multiple structures with
different temperatures.
The long arcs in the optical image are caused by gravitational
lensing of background galaxies by matter in the galaxy cluster, the
largest system of such arcs ever found. Further studies of this
cluster are needed to explain the lack of agreement between mass
estimates based on the X-ray data and on the gravitational lensing.
Previous work suggests that filament-like structures of galaxies are
located near Abell 1689 along our line-of-sight to this cluster,
which may bias mass estimates using gravitational lensing.
| Fast Facts for Abell 1689: |
| Credit |
X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/E.-H Peng et al; Optical: NASA/STScI |
| Release Date |
September 11, 2008 |
| Scale |
Image is 3.2 arcmin across. |
| Category |
Groups & Clusters of Galaxies, Cosmology/Deep Fields/X-ray Background |
| Coordinates (J2000) |
RA 13h 11m 34.20s | Dec +01° 21´ 56.00" |
| Constellation |
Virgo |
| Observation Date |
04/15/2004 - 03/09/2006 with five pointings
|
| Observation Time |
53 hours |
| Obs. ID |
540, 1663, 5004, 6930, 7289
|
| Instrument |
ACIS
|
| Color Code |
X-ray (Purple); Optical (Yellow) |
| Distance Estimate |
About 2.2 billion (z=0.18) light years
|
|
wow, awesome, each galaxy looks like flying birds and whole pic makes we are one in cosmos.
Posted by BHANUPRASAD on Sunday, 10.8.17 @ 12:03pm
Thanks.
Posted by Edgar Csatro Vullanueva on Saturday, 11.19.16 @ 12:43pm
Chandra telescope has been one of the best project from NASA. I have enjoyed a lot of photos from it. I hope all this science material developed a more scientific thinking in all people. It will help us for finishing all religions beliefs and all hate that develop in human beings.
Posted by Ricardo Calderon on Saturday, 06.6.15 @ 12:47pm
Looks like every other pixel in the above photograph is a galaxy. Every Galaxy has a billion stars and only god knows how many planetary systems. It will be highly pessimistic to say we are alone in this whole cosmos.
Posted by Nilesh on Thursday, 09.4.14 @ 01:36am