The cluster RDCS1252.9-2927 (overview)

Esahubble_heic0313d_1024

esahubble_heic0313d December 31st, 2003

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Blakeslee (Johns Hopkins University), M. Postman ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and P. Rosati, Chris Lidman & Ricardo Demarco (European Southern Observatory)

Looking back in time to when the Universe was in its formative youth, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this revealing image of the galaxy cluster RDCS1252.9-2927. The image shows the entire cluster (1/15 of a degree, corresponding to about 7 million light-years, across). The cluster probably contains many thousands of galaxies. Most of the other galaxies in the image, including most of the blue galaxies, are foreground or background galaxies. The image, which is made with an additional infrared exposure taken with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, shows mature galaxies in a massive cluster that existed when the cosmos was 5 billion years old. The cluster, called RDCS1252.9-2927, is as massive as 200 trillion suns and is the most massive known cluster for its epoch. Dominating the core are a pair of large, reddish elliptical galaxies [near centre of image]. Their red colour indicates an older population of stars. Most of the stars are at least 1 billion years old. The two galaxies appear to be interacting and may eventually merge to form a larger galaxy that is comparable to the brightest galaxies seen in present-day clusters. The red galaxies surrounding the central pair are also cluster members. The colour-composite image was assembled from two observations (through i and z filters) taken between May and June 2002 by the ACS Wide Field Camera, and one image with the ISAAC instrument on the VLT taken in 2002 (combined from a J filter exposure and a K filter exposure).

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0313d/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
RDCS1252.9-2927
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_heic0313d_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 52m 54.6s
DEC = -29° 27’ 16.3”
Orientation
North is 90.1° CW
Field of View
4.0 x 4.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Hydra

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
VLT (ISAAC) Infrared (K) -
VLT (ISAAC) Infrared (J) -
Hubble (ACS) Infrared (Z) -
Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) -
Esahubble_heic0313d_1280
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ID
heic0313d
Subject Category
D.5.5.3  
Subject Name
RDCS1252.9-2927
Credits
NASA, ESA, J. Blakeslee (Johns Hopkins University), M. Postman ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and P. Rosati, Chris Lidman & Ricardo Demarco (European Southern Observatory)
Release Date
2003-12-31T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0313d/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope (VLT), Very Large Telescope (VLT), Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ISAAC, ISAAC, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
K, J, Z, I
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
193.22734366, -29.4545322155
Reference Dimension
4801.0, 4801.0
Reference Pixel
2400.5, 2400.5
Scale
-1.38765762799e-05, 1.38765762799e-05
Rotation
-90.119999999999976
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic0313d
Metadata Date
2003-12-19T12:49:29+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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