CL0024+17.jpg
Size of this preview:
600 × 600 pixels
.
Other resolutions:
240 × 240 pixels
|
480 × 480 pixels
|
768 × 768 pixels
|
1,024 × 1,024 pixels
|
2,048 × 2,048 pixels
|
3,921 × 3,921 pixels
.
Description CL0024+17.jpg |
English:
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a ghostly ring of
dark matter
that formed long ago during a titanic collision between two massive galaxy clusters. The ring's discovery is among the strongest evidence yet that dark matter exists. Astronomers have long suspected the existence of the invisible substance as the source of additional gravity that holds together galaxy clusters. Such clusters would fly apart if they relied only on the gravity from their visible stars. Although astronomers don't know what dark matter is made of, they hypothesize that it is a type of elementary particle that pervades the universe.
This Hubble composite image shows the ring of dark matter in the galaxy cluster CL 0024+17 . The ring-like structure is evident in the blue map of the cluster's dark matter distribution. The map was derived from Hubble observations of how the gravity of the cluster Cl 0024+17 distorts the light of more distant galaxies, an optical illusion called gravitational lensing. Although astronomers cannot see dark matter, they can infer its existence by mapping the distorted shapes of the background galaxies. The map is superimposed on a Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys image of the cluster taken in November 2004.
Slovenščina:
Prstenec tmavej hmoty v kope galaxií
CL0024+17
. Snímku zhotovil Hubblov vesmírny ďalekohľad v novembri 2004. Prstenec tmavej hmoty má priemer 5 miliónov svetelných rokov. Vznikol pravdepodobne zrážkou dvoch kôp galaxií. (kľúčové slová: tmavá hmota, galaxia, alebo CL0024+17, dark matter, gravitational lensing).
|
||||
Date | |||||
Source | http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/17/image/a/ ( direct link ) | ||||
Author | NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University) | ||||
Permission
( Reusing this file ) |
|
||||
Other versions |
|
Annotations
InfoField
|
This image is annotated: View the annotations at Commons |
1201
1217
155
188
3921
3921
one of several images
of same galaxy
lensed by the dark matter
2099
1928
98
123
3921
3921
one of several images
of same galaxy
lensed by the dark matter