Image:Bullet cluster.jpg

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Description

X-ray photo by w:Chandra X-ray Observatory of the w:Bullet Cluster (1E0657-56). Exposure time was 0.5 million seconds (~140 hours) and the scale is shown in w:megaparsecs. Redshift (z) = 0.3, meaning its light has wavelengths stretched by a factor of 1.3. Based on today's theories this shows the cluster to be about 4 billion light years away.

In this photograph, a rapidly moving galaxy cluster with a shock wave trailing behind it seems to have hit another cluster at high speed. The gases collide, and gravitational fields of the stars and galalxies interact. When the galaxies collided, based on black-body temperture readings, the temperature reached 160 million degrees and X-rays were emitted in great intensity, claiming title of the hottest known galactic cluster.

Sister picture: image:bullet_cluster_lensing.jpg
Source

http://cxc.harvard.edu/symposium_2005/proceedings/files/markevitch_maxim.pdf
Date

August 22, 2006
Author

User:Mac_Davis
Permission

Original work of NASA - public domain
Public domain This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy).

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