A clear view of a galaxy cluster

Esahubble_potw2333a_1024

esahubble_potw2333a August 14th, 2023

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling

The massive cluster Abell 3322 is featured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in which the galaxy 2MASX J05101744-4519179 basks in the centre. This distant galaxy cluster is a cosmic leviathan that is highly luminous at X-ray wavelengths. Observing galaxy clusters like Abell 3322 can advance our understanding of the evolution and interactions of dark and luminous matter in galaxy clusters, and also reveals powerful gravitational ‘telescopes’ that magnify distant objects through gravitational lensing. Knowing the location of these lenses can enable future observations with both Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy cluster is located in the constellation Pictor, around 2.6 billion light-years from Earth. The unusual alignment of the three brightest cluster galaxies in this image (two in a close pair in the centre of the image and a third in the upper right region) suggests that A3322 is observed in the process of formation. This is because at least two smaller clusters collide along an axis defined by the locations of their individual brightest cluster galaxies. However, the diffuse super-hot gas that permeates all massive galaxy clusters (and is visible only at x-ray wavelengths) is understood to be distributed in a single, almost perfectly spherical halo. In other words, it neither exhibits an elongation that follows the three-galaxy lineup, nor does it show signs of two (or more) individual cluster cores. Discrepancies like this are of great interest for astronomers who want to explore the differences in the dynamic behaviour of gas, galaxies, dark matter, and cluster collisions. Two of Hubble’s instruments joined forces to create this image: Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Both are third-generation instruments that offer superb image quality and high sensitivity to astronomers studying a range of scientific questions. Both instruments provide images of wide areas of the night sky, but view slightly different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. WFC3 spans the spectrum from the ultraviolet through to visible light and the near-infrared. In contrast to the wide panchromatic coverage of WFC3, ACS was optimised for visible-light observations. Getting the best from Hubble requires instruments to use built-in corrective optics to account for the effects of the primary mirror's aberration. During the construction of Hubble, a faulty instrument caused the primary mirror to be very precisely ground to slightly the wrong shape by only 0.0002 mm. A corrective instrument called COSTAR was developed to account for this tiny discrepancy, and later instruments like WFC3 and ACS were built with their own corrective optics. [Image Description: A cluster of elliptical galaxies, visible as a crowd of oval shapes, each glowing around a bright core. The elliptical galaxy that appears largest by far is in the centre, with the other largest galaxies close to it. They are surrounded by a variety of more distant stars and galaxies, in many shapes and sizes but all much smaller, on a dark background.]

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2333a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
2MASX J05101744-4519179
Esahubble_potw2333a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 10m 17.7s
DEC = -45° 19’ 24.1”
Orientation
North is 5.6° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 2.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Pictor

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (YJ) 1.1 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (JH) 1.4 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Red
Red
Esahubble_potw2333a_1280
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ID
potw2333a
Subject Category
Subject Name
2MASX J05101744-4519179
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling
Release Date
2023-08-14T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2333a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red, Red, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
V, I, I, YJ, JH
Central Wavelength
606, 814, 814, 1100, 1400
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
77.57371816677562, -45.3233662876782
Reference Dimension
3136.0, 3265.0
Reference Pixel
1568.0, 1632.5
Scale
-1.3886032825775185e-05, 1.3886032825775185e-05
Rotation
5.6200000000000072
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2333a
Metadata Date
2023-08-07T13:55:26+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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