to encourage! Welcome the New Year with a sparkling ‘Champagne Cluster’ image
A galaxy cluster discovered on New Year’s Eve in 2020 shines in a new image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
x-ray: NASA/CXC/UCDavis/F. Bouhric et al.; optical: Heritage Survey/DECaLS/BASS/MzLS; image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds and L. Frattare
Raise a toast to yet another orbit around the Sun with a new NASA image of a bright galaxy cluster aptly dubbed the “Champagne Cluster.”
The object was first discovered on December 31, 2020. But the new image combines data from NASA’s Chandra
When the Champagne Cluster was first observed, astronomers thought that the celestial object – formally named RM J130558.9+263048.4 – was a single galaxy cluster, but subsequent observations have shown that it is actually two clusters interacting. All told, the merger involves more than 100 galaxies — plus a substantial amount of multimillion-degree gas above them all.
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Scientists have two theories to explain the distinctive appearance of the Champagne Cluster. Both of these were underlined Research published earlier this year In Astrophysical Journal,
The first hypothesis is that these two clusters first collided more than two billion years ago, passing each other and getting caught in a gravitational dance that would eventually see them collide together again. According to the second theory, the clusters collided just 400 million years ago, and the two objects are now moving away from each other. Either way, researchers say, the clusters collided with each other. practically face to face,
The Champagne Cluster is a particularly interesting object for astronomers seeking to understand dark matter, which is invisible to all telescopes but exerts a gravitational pull on everything around it. Scientists believe this mysterious object is unlikely to interact with itself – and that a massive collision between galaxy clusters such as the Champagne Cluster or a similar object called the Bullet Cluster could be the place to see its strange behavior.
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