潘朵拉星系团

2024年6月8日

Pandora’s Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora’s Cluster, Abell 2744 itself appears to be a ponderous merger of three different massive galaxy clusters. It lies some 3.5 billion light-years away, toward the constellation Sculptor. Dominated by dark matter, the mega-cluster warps and distorts the fabric of spacetime, gravitationally lensing even more distant objects. Redder than the Pandora cluster galaxies many of the lensed sources are very distant galaxies in the early Universe, their lensed images stretched and distorted into arcs. Of course distinctive diffraction spikes mark foreground Milky Way stars. At the Pandora Cluster’s estimated distance this cosmic box spans about 6 million light-years. But don’t panic. You can explore the tantalizing region in a 2 minute video tour.

Tomorrow’s picture: what’s that?

潘朵拉星系团
影像提供: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), 影像处理: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

说明: 这幅来自韦伯太空望远镜近红外相机的拼接深场影像，呈现了星系团Abell 2744的壮丽身影。位在玉夫座方向、距离约35亿光年、亦称为潘朵拉星系团的Abell 2744，似乎是由三个独立的大质量星系团合并而成的巨型天体。在其内主宰性暗物质的影响下，这个巨型星系团翘曲和扭曲了时空结构，并以引力透镜会聚更遥远天体的光。影像中许多比潘朵拉星系团星系更红、被拉伸及扭曲成弧形的透镜光源，是非常遥远的早期宇宙星系。想当然耳，带着衍射芒的天体是近在银河系内的前景恒星。以潘朵拉星系团的估计距离来换算，这幅影像所呈现的宇宙空间之跨幅约为600万光年。不过别着急，你可以透过一部2分钟长的导览影片来探索这个迷人的区域。 （Pandora’s Cluster of Galaxies 潘朵拉星系团）

明日的图片: what’s that?