Cosmic fireflies

Esahubble_potw1750a_1024

esahubble_potw1750a December 11th, 2017

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Galaxies glow like fireflies in this spectacular NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image! This flickering swarm of cosmic fireflies is a rich cluster of galaxies called Abell 2163. Abell 2163 is a member of the Abell catalogue, an all-sky catalogue of over 4000 galaxy clusters. It is particularly well-studied because the material sitting at its core (its intracluster medium) exhibits exceptional properties, including a large and bright radio halo and extraordinarily high temperatures and X-ray luminosities. It is the hottest cluster in the catalogue! Observing massive clusters like Abell 2163 can contribute to the study of dark matter, and provide a new perspective on the distant Universe via phenomena such as gravitational lensing. This image was taken by Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide-Field Camera 3, partially for an extensive observing programme called RELICS. The programme is imaging 41 massive galaxy clusters to find the brightest distant galaxies, which will be studied in more detail using both current telescopes and the future NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1750a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Abell 2163
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_potw1750a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 16h 15m 45.2s
DEC = -6° 8’ 48.3”
Orientation
North is 56.1° CCW
Field of View
6.3 x 3.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Ophiuchus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Yellow Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Z) 1.1 µm
Yellow Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J) 1.3 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (J/H) 1.4 µm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Blue
Green
Yellow
Yellow
Red
Red
Esahubble_potw1750a_1280
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ID
potw1750a
Subject Category
D.5.5.3  
Subject Name
Abell 2163
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2017-12-11T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1750a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Blue, Green, Yellow, Yellow, Red, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
B, V, I, Z, J, J/H, H
Central Wavelength
435, 606, 814, 1050, 1250, 1400, 1600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
243.938251454, -6.14674149521
Reference Dimension
12515.0, 6205.0
Reference Pixel
6257.5, 3102.5
Scale
-8.33585631952e-06, 8.33585631952e-06
Rotation
56.09999999999998
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
potw1750a
Metadata Date
2017-06-09T15:13:09+02:00
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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