Telescopes Paint Stunning View Of Galaxy Cluster With Black Hole Jets

Space.com

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

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00:00Visit Chandra's Beautiful Universe

00:05ABEL 2256

00:10Astronomers have captured a spectacular and ongoing collision

00:14between at least three galaxy clusters.

00:17Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory,

00:21ESO's XMM-Newton,

00:23and a trio of radio telescopes

00:25are helping astronomers sort out what is happening

00:28in this jumbled scene.

00:31Galaxy clusters are some of the largest structures in the universe

00:34and contain a mixture of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter.

00:40Over time, these colossal objects can collide

00:43and merge with each other through their gravitational pull.

00:47This is the main way that galaxy clusters can grow

00:50into the gigantic cosmic edifices seen today.

00:54ABEL 2256, located 780 million light-years from Earth,

00:59is a scene where this process is taking place.

01:03Astronomers studying this object are trying to tease out

01:06what has led to this unusual-looking structure.

01:09Each telescope tells a different part of the story.

01:13For example, Chandra and XMM-Newton

01:16can see the multi-million-degree gas from the clusters.

01:20The radio emission in this system arises from an even more complex set of sources.

01:25The first are the galaxies themselves,

01:28where the radio signal is generated by particles blasting away in jets

01:32from supermassive black holes at their centers.

01:35Radio waves are also coming from a huge filamentary structure,

01:39which was likely generated when the collision created shock waves

01:42and accelerated particles in the gas.

01:45Astronomers will continue to study this complex system

01:49to untangle this knot of galaxy clusters

01:52and the details of the physics taking place there.

01:54This will help us learn more about how these cosmic giants

01:58came to inhabit the universe today.

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