Hubble image archive
Dark Matter Distribution in Supercluster Abell 901/902
Astronomers assembled this photo by combining a visible-light image of the Abell 901/902 supercluster taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, with a dark matter map derived from observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The magenta-tinted clumps repr...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2008
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2008-03-2241-image
Astronomers assembled this photo by combining a visible-light image of the Abell 901/902 supercluster taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, with a dark matter map derived from observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The magenta-tinted clumps represent a map of the dark matter in the cluster. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe's mass. The image shows that the supercluster galaxies lie within the clumps of dark matter.
Hubble cannot see the dark matter directly. Astronomers inferred its location by analyzing the effect of so-called weak gravitational lensing, where light from more than 60,000 galaxies behind Abell 901/902 is distorted by intervening matter within the cluster. Researchers used the observed, subtle distortion of the galaxies' shapes to reconstruct the dark matter distribution in the supercluster.
Credits
NASA, ESA, C. Heymans (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), M. Gray (University of Nottingham, U.K.), M. Barden (Innsbruck), the STAGES collaboration, C. Wolf (Oxford University, U.K.), K. Meisenheimer (Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg), and the COMBO-17 collaborationImage Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Abell 901/902 |
| Object Description | Space Telescope A901/902 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES), Supercluster, Large Galaxy Cluster |
| R.A. Position | 10h |
| Dec. Position | -10 |
| Constellation | Leo |
| Distance | Redshift of z = 0.16 |
| Dimensions | The STAGES area covers 0.5x0.5 degrees which corresponds to an area of 5x5 Megaparsecs |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST Proposal: M. Gray (University of Nottingham) The science team is being led by C. Heymans (University of British Columbia). The full list of team members is available at the STAGES team webpage. |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope |
| Exposure Dates | June and July, 2005, Exposure Time: 1.6 days (HST data) |
| Filters | ACS/WFC: F606W (V) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Visible: MPG/ESO Magenta (dark matter): F606W (V) |
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Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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