esahubble_heic1215b October 16th, 2012
Credit: NASA, ESA, Harald Ebeling(University of Hawaii at Manoa) & Jean-Paul Kneib (LAM)
This enormous image shows Hubbles view of massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745. The large field of view is a combination of 18 separate Hubble images. Studying the distorting effects of gravity on light from background galaxies, a team of astronomers has uncovered the presence of a filament of dark matter extending from the core of the cluster. This is one of the first positive detections of a filament, and the most precise to date. Using additional observations from ground-based telescopes, the team were able to map the filaments structure in three dimensions, the first time this has ever been done.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/heic1215b/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
Providers | Sign In