These images, taken by three different telescopes, show the distant, hefty galaxy cluster MS1054-0321, containing thousands of galaxies and trillions of stars. Weighing the equivalent of several thousand of our Milky Ways, the cluster is 8 billion light-years from Earth.
The image on the left is a color composite taken by ground-based and X-ray observatories showing the entire galaxy cluster surrounded by background and foreground galaxies. The blue color in the center of the image represents the huge amount of hot gas that fills the space between the galaxies in the cluster. This gas - colored blue - cannot be seen in visible light, but glows in X-ray frequencies. Astronomers have measured its temperature at 300 million degrees Fahrenheit. The X-ray information was used to estimate the cluster's total mass.
The boxed area in the center of the image pinpoints the Hubble telescope's field of view. The image on the right, taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, shows a clearer view of the galaxies in the heart of the cluster. The width of this massive cluster is a few million light-years.
The ground-based image was taken between May 1992 and November 1993 by the 88-inch telescope at the University of Hawaii. Astronomers Isabella Gioia and Gerry Luppino of the University of Hawaii made this four-hour exposure with a near-infrared filter (8,000 angstroms).
The X-ray image was taken in 1996 by astronomer Megan Donahue of the Space Telescope Science Institute with the High Resolution Imager aboard the Rosat satellite. The exposure time was 34 hours.
Donahue used a near-infrared filter (F814W) to take the Hubble telescope image in 1996. The exposure time was four hours.
Credits
HST Image: Megan Donahue (STSCI);Ground-based Image: Isabella Gioia (Univ. of Hawaii), and NASA
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | MS1054-0321 |
| R.A. Position | 10h 57m 0.19s |
| Dec. Position | -3° 37' 27.0" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
