The image depicts the center region of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, which contains around two thousand galaxies. At roughly 50 million light years away, the cluster is the largest and closest galaxy cluster to our local group, which is also thought to be on the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster. The irregular distribution of the area's X-ray halo also revealed that the Virgo Cluster is made up of at least three sub-clusters centered around M87, M86, and M49.
Fun Facts:
The Virgo Cluster: Hot Plasma and Dark Matter Credit: R. Mushotzky and S. Snowden
LHEA/
GSFC,
ROSATThis ROSAT image of the
Virgo cluster of galaxies reveals a hot X-ray emitting plasma or gas with a temperature of 10-100 million degrees pervading the cluster. False colors have been used to represent the intensity of X-ray emission. The large area of X-ray emission, just below and left of center, is about 1 million light-years across. The
giant elliptical galaxy M87, the biggest member
of the cluster, is centered in that area while
other cluster members are scattered around it. By adding up the amount of X-ray emitting gas astronomers have found that its total mass is up to 5 times the total mass of the cluster galaxies themselves - yet all this matter still does not produce nearly enough gravity to keep the cluster from flying apart! Where is the unseen mass? Because galaxy clusters are the
largest structures in the Universe, this
mysterious Dark Matter must dominate the cosmos
but its nature is still an
open question.
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