The group of galaxies – or "galaxy cluster" – catalogued as MS1054-03 is 8 billion light-years away, one of the most distant known so far. Although hundreds of galaxies appear in the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, a European-led team of astronomers has studied in detail 81 galaxies that certainly belong to the cluster, 13 of which are remnants of recent collisions or pairs of colliding galaxies. This is by far the largest number of colliding galaxies ever found in a cluster.
The picture is actually a "mosaic" of images, so that astronomers can have a much wider view of the distant cluster. This is why the colliding galaxies, mostly located in clumps in the outskirts of the cluster, had not been discovered so far.
In the image, streams of stars can be seen being pulled out of the galaxies, a consequence of the huge tidal forces in action. The red color of most of the merger remnants means that the stars are old and not much star formation has "recently" taken place.
The observations with the Hubble were made in May 1998. The 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii was used to confirm that the colliding galaxies were part of the cluster.
Credits
Pieter van Dokkum, Marijn Franx (University of Groningen/Leiden), ESA and NASA| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | MS1054-03 |
| R.A. Position | 10h 57m 0.19s |
| Dec. Position | -3° 37' 27.0" |
| About The Object | |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
