Hubble image archive

Abell S1063

Tracing Diffuse Starlight in Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063Hubble's powerful sensitivity and resolution captures a soft blue haze, called intracluster light, among innumerable galaxies in the Abell S1063 cluster. The stars producing this glow have been thrown out from their galaxies....

Date
Jan 1, 2018
Mission
Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID
hubblesite-images-2018-56-4293-image
By

Tracing Diffuse Starlight in Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063

Hubble's powerful sensitivity and resolution captures a soft blue haze, called intracluster light, among innumerable galaxies in the Abell S1063 cluster. The stars producing this glow have been thrown out from their galaxies. These stars now live solitary lives, no longer part of a galaxy but aligning themselves with the gravity of the overall cluster. Astronomers have found that intracluster light's association with a map of mass distribution in the cluster's overall gravitational field makes it a good indicator of how invisible dark matter is distributed in the cluster.

Credits

NASA, ESA, and M. Montes (University of New South Wales)

Image Details

About The Object
Object NameAbell S1063
Object Descriptiongalaxy cluster
R.A. Position22:49:17.69
Dec. Position-44:32:43.8
ConstellationGrus
Distance4 billion light-years
About The Data
Data DescriptionAbell S1063 and MACS J0416 are part of the Frontier Fields Program. These data are from the HST proposals (PI: M. Postman, STScI), 13459 (PI: T. Treu, UCLA), (PI: J. Lotz, STScI), and (PI: B. Siana, UC Riverside).
InstrumentACS/WFC, WFC3/IR
Exposure DatesDecember 2005 - May 2016
FiltersACS/WFC: F435W, F606W, F814W; WFC3/IR: F105W, F125W, F140W, and F160W
About The Image
Color InfoThese images are composites of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/IR and ACS/WFC instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: ACS/WFC F435W (B) + F606W (R) Green: ACS/WFC F814W (I) + WFC3/IR F105W (Y) Red: WFC3/IR F125W (J) + F140W (JH) + F160W (H)

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Source

Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.

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