Abell 1689

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Abell 1689
New Hubble view of galaxy cluster Abell 1689.jpg
Hubble view of galaxy cluster Abell 1689. It combines both visible and infrared data, with a combined exposure time of over 34 hours. [1]
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation(s) Virgo
Right ascension 13h 11m 34.2s [2]
Declination −01° 21 56
Richness class 4 [3]
Bautz–Morgan classification II-III [3]
Redshift 0.1832 [2]
Distance 754  Mpc (2,459  Mly) h1
0.705
[2]
X-ray flux (14.729 ± 8.1%)×10−11 erg s−1 cm−2 (0.1–2.4 keV) [2]
See also: Galaxy group, Galaxy cluster, List of galaxy groups and clusters

Abell 1689 is a galaxy cluster in the constellation Virgo over 2.3 billion light-years away.

Contents

Details

Abell 1689 is one of the biggest and most massive galaxy clusters known and acts as a gravitational lens, distorting the images of galaxies that lie behind it. [4] It has the largest system of gravitational arcs ever found. [5]

Abell 1689 shows over 160,000 globular clusters, the largest population ever found. [6]

There is evidence of merging and gases in excess of 100 million degrees. [5] The very large mass of this cluster makes it useful for the study of dark matter and gravitational lensing. [7] [8]

At the time of its discovery in 2008, one of the lensed galaxies, A1689-zD1, was the most distant galaxy found. [9] [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gravitational lens</span> Light bending by mass between source and observer

A gravitational lens is matter, such as a cluster of galaxies or a point particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. If light is treated as corpuscles travelling at the speed of light, Newtonian physics also predicts the bending of light, but only half of that predicted by general relativity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galaxy cluster</span> Structure made up of a gravitationally-bound aggregation of hundreds of galaxies

A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-largest known gravitationally bound structures in the universe after some superclusters (of which only one, the Shapley Supercluster, is known to be bound). They were believed to be the largest known structures in the universe until the 1980s, when superclusters were discovered. One of the key features of clusters is the intracluster medium (ICM). The ICM consists of heated gas between the galaxies and has a peak temperature between 2–15 keV that is dependent on the total mass of the cluster. Galaxy clusters should not be confused with galactic clusters (also known as open clusters), which are star clusters within galaxies, or with globular clusters, which typically orbit galaxies. Small aggregates of galaxies are referred to as galaxy groups rather than clusters of galaxies. The galaxy groups and clusters can themselves cluster together to form superclusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 2218</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Draco

Abell 2218 is a large cluster of galaxies over 2 billion light-years away in the constellation Draco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omega Centauri</span> Globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus

Omega Centauri is a globular cluster in the constellation of Centaurus that was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. Located at a distance of 17,090 light-years, it is the largest-known globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years. It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars, with a total mass of 4 million solar masses, making it the most massive known globular cluster in the Milky Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 6397</span> Globular cluster of stars in the Milky Way

NGC 6397 is a globular cluster in the constellation Ara that was discovered by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1752. It is located about 7,800 light-years from Earth, making it one of the two nearest globular clusters to Earth. The cluster contains around 400,000 stars, and can be seen with the naked eye under good observing conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwarf galaxy</span> Small galaxy composed of up to several billion stars

A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is sometimes classified as a dwarf galaxy; others consider it a full-fledged galaxy. Dwarf galaxies' formation and activity are thought to be heavily influenced by interactions with larger galaxies. Astronomers identify numerous types of dwarf galaxies, based on their shape and composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perseus Cluster</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Perseus

The Perseus cluster is a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Perseus. It has a recession speed of 5,366 km/s and a diameter of 863. It is one of the most massive objects in the known universe, containing thousands of galaxies immersed in a vast cloud of multimillion-degree gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 2667</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Sculptor

Abell 2667 is a galaxy cluster. It is one of the most luminous galaxy clusters in the X-ray waveband known at a redshift about 0.2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 1427A</span> Galaxy in the constellation Fornax

NGC 1427A is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Fornax. Its distance modulus has been estimated using the globular cluster luminosity function to be 31.01 ± 0.21 which is about 52 Mly. It is the brightest dwarf irregular member of the Fornax cluster and is in the foreground of the cluster's central galaxy NGC 1399.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 520</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation of Orion

Abell 520 is a galaxy cluster in the Orion constellation, located at a co-moving radial distance of 811 Mpc (2,645 Mly) and subtends 25 arcminutes on the Earth sky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A1689-zD1</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

A1689-zD1 is a galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It was a candidate for the most distant and therefore earliest-observed galaxy discovered as of February 2008, based on a photometric redshift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 370</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus

Abell 370 is a galaxy cluster located nearly 5 billion light-years away from the Earth, in the constellation Cetus. Its core is made up of several hundred galaxies. It was catalogued by George Abell, and is the most distant of the clusters he catalogued.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 2744</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Sculptor

Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, is a giant galaxy cluster resulting from the simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate, smaller galaxy clusters that took place over a span of 350 million years, and is located approximately 4 billion light years from Earth. The galaxies in the cluster make up less than five percent of its mass. The gas is so hot that it shines only in X-rays. Dark matter makes up around 75 percent of the cluster's mass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MACS0647-JD</span> The farthest known galaxy from the Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis

MACS0647-JD is a galaxy with a redshift of about z = 10.7, equivalent to a light travel distance of 13.26 billion light-years. If the distance estimate is correct, it formed about 427 million years after the Big Bang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 2261</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation of Hercules

Abell 2261 is one of 25 galaxy clusters being studied as part of the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) program, a major project to build a library of scientific data on lensing clusters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRC 0218</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus

The galaxy cluster IRC 0218 hosts the most distant strong gravitational lensing galaxy currently known at a redshift of z = 1.62. The lens is one of the two brightest cluster galaxies and is lensing a background star-forming galaxy at a redshift of z = 2.26 into a bright arc and a faint counterimage. The lens was discovered through a combination of Hubble Space Telescope and Keck telescope imaging and spectroscopy. The discovery and subsequent analysis of the lens was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 23, 2014 by an international team of astronomers led by Dr. Kim-Vy Tran from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas and team members Dr. Kenneth Wong and Dr. Sherry Suyu from the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MACS J0416.1-2403</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Eridanus

MACS J0416.1-2403 or MACS0416 abbreviated, is a cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z=0.397 with a mass 160 trillion times the mass of the Sun inside 200 kpc (650 kly). Its mass extends out to a radius of 950 kpc (3,100 kly) and was measured as 1.15 × 1015 solar masses. The system was discovered in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope during the Massive Cluster Survey, MACS. This cluster causes gravitational lensing of distant galaxies producing multiple images. Based on the distribution of the multiple image copies, scientists have been able to deduce and map the distribution of dark matter. The images, released in 2014, were used in the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) to help scientists peer back in time at the early Universe and to discover the distribution of dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Meylan</span> Swiss astronomer

Georges Meylan is a Swiss astronomer, born on July 31, 1950, in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was the director of the Laboratory of Astrophysics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and now a professor emeritus of astrophysics and cosmology at EPFL. He is still active in both research and teaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SMACS J0723.3–7327</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Volans

SMACS J0723.3–7327, commonly referred to as SMACS 0723, is a galaxy cluster about 4 billion light years from Earth, within the southern constellation of Volans. It is a patch of sky visible from the Southern Hemisphere on Earth and often observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes in search of the deep past. It was the target of the first full-color image to be unveiled by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), imaged using NIRCam, with spectra included, showing objects lensed by the cluster with redshifts implying they are 13.1 billion years old. The cluster has been previously observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as part of the Southern MAssive Cluster Survey (SMACS), as well as Planck and Chandra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abell 68</span> Galaxy cluster in the constellation Pisces

Abell 68 is massive and rich galaxy cluster located in the constellation of Pisces with a projected co-moving distance of approximately 1124.6 Mpc or 3.668 billion light-years away from Earth. The cluster is especially notable for its gravitational lensing and was first discovered by George O. Abell in 1958.

References

  1. "New Hubble image of galaxy cluster Abell 1689". ESA/Hubble Press Release. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for Abell 1689. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  3. 1 2 Abell, George O.; Corwin, Harold G. Jr.; Olowin, Ronald P. (May 1989). "A catalog of rich clusters of galaxies". Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 70 (May 1989): 1–138. Bibcode:1989ApJS...70....1A. doi: 10.1086/191333 . ISSN   0067-0049.
  4. Falcon-Lang, Howard (19 August 2010). "Fate of Universe revealed by galactic lens". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Purple Haze, Part Deux". NASA. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  6. "Globular clusters within Abell 1689". HUBBLE/ESA. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  7. "Detailed Dark Matter Map Yields Clues to Galaxy Cluster Growth". NASA. 11 December 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  8. Diego, Jose M.; Broadhurst, T.; Benitez, N.; Umetsu, K.; Coe, D.; Sendra, I.; et al. (2014). "A Free-Form Lensing Grid Solution for A1689 with New Multiple Images". MNRAS. 446 (1): 683–704. arXiv: 1402.4170 . Bibcode:2015MNRAS.446..683D. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stu2064 .
  9. "Astronomers Eye Ultra-Young, Bright Galaxy in Early Universe". NASA. 2008-02-12. Archived from the original on 2016-03-18. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  10. "Astronomers Uncover One of the Youngest and Brightest Galaxies in the Early Universe". Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, Md. / nasa.gov. 2008-02-12. Archived from the original on 17 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-25.