Telescopes Paint Stunning View Of Galaxy Cluster With Black Hole Jets
Views of a massive galaxy cluster Abell 2256 have been captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton and three radio telescopes (LOFAR, the GMRT and the VLA). See a composite of all the views here.
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart
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TechTranscript
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00:04 Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.
00:08 Able 2256.
00:12 Astronomers have captured a spectacular and ongoing collision
00:16 between at least three galaxy clusters.
00:20 Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory,
00:24 ESO's XMM-Newton, and a trio of radio telescopes
00:28 have this jumbled scene. Galaxy clusters are some
00:32 of the largest structures in the universe and contain a mixture of galaxies,
00:36 hot gas, and dark matter.
00:40 Over time, these colossal objects can collide and merge with each other
00:44 through their gravitational pull. This is the main way
00:48 that galaxy clusters can grow into the gigantic cosmic edifices seen
00:52 today. Able 2256
00:56 located 780 million light years from Earth, is a scene where this
01:00 process is taking place. Astronomers studying this object
01:04 are trying to tease out what has led to this unusual looking structure.
01:08 Each telescope tells a different part of the story.
01:12 For example, Chandra and XMM-Newton can see
01:16 the multi-million degree gas from the clusters.
01:20 The radio emission in this system arises from an even more complex set of sources.
01:24 The first are the galaxies themselves, where the
01:28 radio signal is generated by particles blasting away in jets from
01:32 supermassive black holes at their centers. Radio waves are also
01:36 coming from a huge filamentary structure, which was likely generated
01:40 when the collision created shock waves and accelerated particles in the gas.
01:45 Astronomers will continue to study this complex system
01:49 to untangle this knot of galaxy clusters and the details of the
01:53 physics taking place there. This will help us learn more about how
01:57 these cosmic giants came to inhabit the universe today.
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