Abell 3192: One cluster or two?

[Ann]

Abell 3192: One cluster or two?

https://esahubble.org/images/potw2348a/

This image features the center of the more massive and distant of the two clusters that comprise Abell 3192. The smaller galaxies in the picture belong to both clusters.

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This Hubble Picture of the Week features a massive cluster of brightly glowing galaxies, first identified as Abell 3192. Like all galaxy clusters, this one is suffused with hot gas that emits powerful X-rays, and it is enveloped in a halo of invisible dark matter. All this unseen material — not to mention the many galaxies visible in this image — comprises such a huge amount of mass that the galaxy cluster noticeably curves spacetime around it, making it into a gravitational lens. Smaller galaxies behind the cluster appear distorted into long, warped arcs around the cluster’s edges...

It was subsequently shown that the original Abell cluster actually comprised two independent galaxy clusters — a foreground group around 2.3 billion light-years from Earth, and a further group at the greater distance of about 5.4 billion light-years from our planet. The more distant galaxy cluster, included in the Massive Cluster Survey as MCS J0358.8-2955, is central in this image. The two galaxy groups are thought to have masses equivalent to around 30 trillion and 120 trillion times the mass of the Sun, respectively. Both of the two largest galaxies at the centre of this image are part of MCS J0358.8-2955; the smaller galaxies you see here, however, are a mixture of the two groups within Abell 3192.

The center of MCS J0358.8-2955. Note the red and blue galactic lens.

The outskirts of Abell 3192. Note the jumble of overlapping
foreground and background galaxies at upper center.

[AVAO]

Abell 3192: One cluster or two?

https://esahubble.org/images/potw2348a/

This image features the center of the more massive and distant of the two clusters that comprise Abell 3192. The smaller galaxies in the picture belong to both clusters.

---

This Hubble Picture of the Week features a massive cluster of brightly glowing galaxies, first identified as Abell 3192. Like all galaxy clusters, this one is suffused with hot gas that emits powerful X-rays, and it is enveloped in a halo of invisible dark matter. All this unseen material — not to mention the many galaxies visible in this image — comprises such a huge amount of mass that the galaxy cluster noticeably curves spacetime around it, making it into a gravitational lens. Smaller galaxies behind the cluster appear distorted into long, warped arcs around the cluster’s edges...

It was subsequently shown that the original Abell cluster actually comprised two independent galaxy clusters — a foreground group around 2.3 billion light-years from Earth, and a further group at the greater distance of about 5.4 billion light-years from our planet. The more distant galaxy cluster, included in the Massive Cluster Survey as MCS J0358.8-2955, is central in this image. The two galaxy groups are thought to have masses equivalent to around 30 trillion and 120 trillion times the mass of the Sun, respectively. Both of the two largest galaxies at the centre of this image are part of MCS J0358.8-2955; the smaller galaxies you see here, however, are a mixture of the two groups within Abell 3192.

The center of Abell 3192 potw2348a ESA Hubble & NASA.png

The center of MCS J0358.8-2955. Note the red and blue galactic lens.

The outskirts of Abell 3192 potw2348a ESA Hubble & NASA.png

The outskirts of Abell 3192. Note the jumble of overlapping
foreground and background galaxies at upper center.

ThanX Ann

You're right. LEDA 723741 is a beauty

Click to view full size image

Credit: NASA/ESA