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HSC J023336-053022, a massive cluster of galaxies about 4 billion light years from Earth, heats the material it contains to hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius – more than 25 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
This composite image shows the HSC galaxy cluster J023336-053022, also known as ACT-CL J0233.6-0530 or XLSSC 105. Image credit: Green Bank Observatory / National Science Foundation / Subaru Telescope / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / HSC-SSP Collaboration / ESA / XMM-Newton / XXL Survey Consortium.
Galaxy clusters contain thousands of galaxies of all ages, shapes and sizes.
Typically, they have a mass of about a trillion times the mass of the Sun and form over billions of years as smaller clusters of galaxies slowly come together.
Different subgroups of galaxies can also form within the same cluster, as in the case of HSC J023336-053022.
Two blue-violet circles in the composite image above mark the locations of two subgroups inside the HSC J023336-053022 which slowly approach and collide with each other, “ heating up by shock ” the gas at intense temperatures in the process.
To create this image, three different international teams of astronomers explored observations of the cluster across the electromagnetic spectrum, in order to isolate and identify different aspects of this region of space.
These aspects are presented here in different colors:
(i) individual galaxies in the cluster appear in orange;
(ii) dark matter, which maps the location of the two subgroups, in blue;
(iii) hot, dense gas appears green, while hot, thin, high pressure gas appears red; this gas is known as the “intracluster medium,” which permeates galaxy clusters and fills the space between galaxies.
The addition of radio observations makes this image from HSC J023336-053022 special, as many studies of collisions within or between clusters of galaxies have not captured this shock-heating process – which is visually depicted. in the region where green turns red – in radio.
This process releases immense amounts of energy and heats already burning gas to temperatures tens of times higher.
Before shock heating, the gas sits at around 40 million degrees Celsius – already around 2.7 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
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