Key facts
- Category
- Galaxy clusters
- Object class
- Galaxy cluster
- Scale fact
- 4 million lydiameter
- Composition
- Several hundred galaxies, hot intracluster gas, dark matter
Pandora's Cluster
4 million lydiameter
Visual creditMagellan and Hubble 2006 / NASA, ESA, and R. Dupke (Eureka Scientific, Inc.), et al. / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Pandora's Cluster, also known as Abell 2744, is a giant galaxy cluster shaped by a violent and complicated merger of smaller clusters. Its galaxies, superheated gas, and dark matter have been pulled apart and redistributed in different ways, so astronomers can compare where the ordinary matter and the dark matter ended up.
Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744, is the product of a complex merger involving several galaxy-cluster components. The galaxies, X-ray-emitting gas and mass reconstructed from gravitational lensing occupy different distributions because they responded differently during the collisions.
That separation lets astronomers compare ordinary matter with the dark-matter-dominated mass map. The cluster also acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying more distant galaxies behind it.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Pandora's Cluster on Wikipedia
- Universe journey
- Cosmic web
Size neighbors
Objects near Pandora's Cluster on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, Pandora's Cluster falls between Abell 1689 and Bullet Cluster. The band uses nearby Galaxy cluster records.
Shared physical scale
15.3million ly
Sources
References for Pandora's Cluster
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Pandora's Cluster — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Magellan and Hubble 2006 / NASA, ESA, and R. Dupke (Eureka Scientific, Inc.), et al., Public domain)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.