Gas and stars in galaxy cluster (IMAGE)
Caption
A computer simulation of what the gas and stars in a galaxy cluster look like, highlighting how clusters of galaxies are embedded in cosmic web of filaments. In the color images, the intensity and color of the image represent the density and temperature of the gas. These figures show successive zooms onto a galaxy embedded in a filament. Going counterclockwise from the top right, the scale bars represent lengths of 3.3 million light years, 3.3 million light years, 330 thousand light years, 33 thousand light years. The image at lower right shows the stars in the galaxies in this simulated cluster, with the scale bar corresponding to 330 thousand light years. The WISESize program will use observations to measure the spatial distribution of gas and stars in galaxies as they move through the cosmic web that permeates the nearby universe. By comparing to simulations such as those shown here, Rudnick and collaborators will be able to determine how the cosmic web alters galaxies.
Credit
Yannick Bahé
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None
License
Original content