Galaxy Cluster Collision

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 
Video imagery:

·       Abell 1775, X-ray: NASA/CXC/Leiden Univ./A. Botteon et al.

·       Abell 1775, Radio: Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)/ASTRON

·       Abell 1775, Composite: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Leiden Univ./A. Botteon et al.; Radio: LOFAR/ASTRON; Optical/IR:PanSTARRS

Writer: Leah Ramsay
Designer: Leah Hustak, Joseph Olmsted
Science review: Dr. Kelly Lepo
Education review: Jim Manning
Music from Music for Non-Profits

(SPEECH)

[COSMIC MUSIC]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Gases of various colors in outer space. Text, News from the Universe

 

A formation in vivid blue. Text, July 23, 2021. Galaxy Cluster Collision.

 

New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory adds to evidence of an ongoing galaxy cluster collision in Abell 1775

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Structure and Chandra's data indicates that a smaller galaxy cluster is passing through a larger one.

 

Radio data of the same area shows a huge jet powered by a supermassive black hole.

 

Together, a multi-wavelength data shows the jet's structure change abruptly as it moves through different gas densities caused by the collision.

 

While Chandra data confirms the clusters are colliding, questions remain about the formation of the bright, curving structure shown in the clusters’ intersecting gas.

 

This news was brought to you in part by the Chandra X-Ray Center in Cambridge, MA