Several hundred million years ago, two galaxy clusters collided and then passed through each other. This mighty event
released a flood of hot gas from each galaxy cluster that formed an unusual
bridge between the two objects. This bridge is now being pummeled by particles driven
away from a supermassive black hole.
Galaxy clusters
are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. They contain
hundreds or thousands of galaxies, vast amounts of multi-million-degree gas
that glow in X-rays, and enormous reservoirs of unseen dark matter.
The system known
as Abell 2384 shows the giant structures that can result when two galaxy
clusters collide. A superheated gas bridge in Abell 2384 is shown in this
composite image of X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and
ESA’s XMM-Newton (blue), as well as the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in
India (red). This new multi-wavelength view reveals the effects of
a jet shooting away from a supermassive black hole in the center of a
galaxy in one of the clusters. The jet is so powerful that it is bending the
shape of the gas bridge, which extends for over 3 million light
years and has the mass of about 6 trillion Suns.
Source: NASA
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