Archivo de imágenes de Hubble

Cúmulos de galaxias Abell S1063 y MACS J0416.1-2403

Tracing Diffuse Starlight in Galaxy ClustersTwo massive galaxy clusters — Abell S1063 (left) and MACS J0416.1-2403 (right) — display a soft blue haze, called intracluster light, embedded among innumerable galaxies. The intracluster light is produced by orphan stars that no longer...

Fecha
Jan 1, 2018
Misión
Hubble Space Telescope
ID de archivo
hubblesite-images-2018-56-4291-image
Por

Tracing Diffuse Starlight in Galaxy Clusters

Two massive galaxy clusters — Abell S1063 (left) and MACS J0416.1-2403 (right) — display a soft blue haze, called intracluster light, embedded among innumerable galaxies. The intracluster light is produced by orphan stars that no longer belong to any single galaxy, having been thrown loose during a violent galaxy interaction, and now drift freely throughout the cluster of galaxies. Astronomers have found that intracluster light closely matches with a map of mass distribution in the cluster's overall gravitational field. This makes the blue "ghost light" a good indicator of how invisible dark matter is distributed in the cluster. Dark matter is a key missing link in our understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe. Abell S1063 and MACS J0416.1-2403 were the strongest examples of intracluster light providing a much better match to the cluster's mass map than X-ray light, which has been used in the past to trace dark matter.

Credits

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

Detalles de la imagen

About The Object
Object NameAbell S1063 and MACS J0416.1-2403
Object DescriptionGalaxy Clusters
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)

Compartir

Fuente

La imagen y el material de referencia se acreditan al archivo oficial de la misión enlazado a continuación.

Ver en NASA.gov

Fuentes preferidas de Google

Descubre más de Space Telescope en Google

Elige Space Telescope como fuente preferida para encontrar más fácilmente nuestras noticias de misiones, reportajes visuales y explicaciones independientes en Google.