Tag Archive for 'Intracluster light'

Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Anthony Englert, Brown University / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DECam Captures Elusive Intracluster Light in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3667

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

Intracluster light is a diffuse glow of stars stripped from galaxies during a galaxy cluster’s formation. Abell 3667 is featured in this DECam image....

These Hubble images show two massive galaxy clusters: MOO J1014+0038 (left) and SPT-CL J2106-5844 (right). The artificially added blue color is translated from Hubble data that captured a phenomenon called intracluster light. This extremely faint glow traces a smooth distribution of light from wandering stars scattered across the cluster. Billions of years ago the stars were shed from their parent galaxies and now drift through intergalactic space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / James Jee, Yonsei University / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Detects Intracluster Light from Distant Galaxy Clusters

Jan 5, 2023 by News Staff

Intracluster light is diffuse light from stars that are gravitationally bound not to individual member galaxies, but to the halo of galaxy clusters. In...

The galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Frontier Fields Program. The huge mass of the cluster -- containing both baryonic matter and dark matter -- acts as cosmic magnification glass and deforms objects behind it. In the past astronomers used this gravitational lensing effect to calculate the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters. A more accurate and faster way, however, is to study the intracluster light (visible in blue), which follows the distribution of dark matter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Montes, University of New South Wales.

Intracluster Light Illuminates Dark Matter in Galaxy Clusters

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

Dark matter is a mysterious substance that makes up about 85% of the matter in the Universe. It does not emit any kind of electromagnetic radiation and...