The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking photo of part of the Perseus cluster, a collection of thousands of galaxies approximately 240 million light-years from Earth.
This Hubble image shows two galaxies, 2MASX J03193743+4137580 (left) and UGC 2665 (right), in the Perseus cluster. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Harris / L. Shatz.
Approximately 11 million light-years across, the Perseus cluster is named for its host constellation.
Also known as Abell 426, it is one of the most massive objects in the observable Universe, containing over 1,000 galaxies immersed in a vast gas cloud.
“Perseus is an important figure in Greek mythology, renowned for slaying Medusa the Gorgon — who is herself famous for the unhappy reason that she was cursed to have living snakes for hair,” Hubble astronomers said.
“Given impressive credentials of Perseus, it seems appropriate that the eponymous galaxy cluster is one of the biggest objects in the known Universe, consisting of thousands of galaxies, only a few of which are visible in this image.”
The new Hubble image shows two huge members of the Perseus cluster: 2MASX J03193743+4137580 and UGC 2665.
2MASX J03193743+4137580 is classified as a lenticular galaxy, while UGC 2665 is a spiral galaxy.
“The wonderful detail in the image is thanks to the powerful resolution and high sensitivity of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3),” the researchers said.
“The WFC3 instrument is sensitive to both visible and infrared light, so those are the wavelengths that are captured in this image.”
“The Perseus cluster looks very different at other wavelengths,” they added.
“Whilst in this image the spaces between the galaxies appear dark and peaceful, when the X-ray emission is observed the Perseus cluster appears to be burning with bright intense light.”
