In 2012, scientists discovered an exceptionally large cluster seven billion light-years away from Earth. James Webb paid a visit to this cluster, resulting in this beautiful photo.
The cluster is called ACT-CL-J0102-4915 and has been nicknamed “El Gordo”. That’s Spanish for “the great one.” The cluster consists of hundreds of galaxies. In addition, El Gordo consists of warm gas and dark matter.
We see the cluster as it appeared at a very young age. “Compared to any known cluster at this distance, this cluster is the most massive and the hottest and also produces the most X-rays,” researcher Felipe Menanteau said in 2014. A surprising find, because according to cosmological models there would be a small chance of finding such clusters so early in the universe.
The researchers hoped to photograph El Gordo again using Hubble. This dream has now more or less come true. Not Hubble, but James Webb has aimed his mirrors at the cluster.
In the space photo of the week we see countless galaxies. El Gordo acts like a gravitational lens. The galaxies in this cluster have a very strong gravitational field. The light from objects behind the cluster is deflected. This has all kinds of consequences. For example, the image of a galaxy can be distorted or stretched. Sometimes it even produces several images, for example in the case of an Einstein Cross.
Also in the case of El Gordo we see the gravitational lens at work. The thin stripe (A) and the red fishhook (B) are distorted background galaxies.
2023-08-13 06:32:32
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