Striking image shows mass distribution of nearby galaxy cluster
noirlab_noirlab2012a July 1st, 2020
Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Using the Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab, astronomers are measuring weak gravitational lensing to map the distribution of mass in nearby galaxy clusters. As well as producing remarkable images like this one, the information will shed light on the relationships between the constituent parts of nearby galaxy clusters, such as gas, stellar populations, and dark matter. The galaxy cluster Abell 3827 is the subject of this striking image. In addition to featuring a field of galaxies and foreground stars, the image is overlaid with a map with hues of red, blue and purple. Though they are attractive, these colors aren’t for decoration — they represent the distribution of mass in the heart of Abell 3827 with red showing the largest mass concentration.
Provider: NOIRLab
Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2012a/
Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- noirlab2012a
- Subject Category
- Subject Name
- Abell 3827
- Credits
- CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
- Release Date
- 2020-07-01T13:26:19
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2012a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- None, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope
- Instrument
- None, DECam, DECam, DECam, DECam
- Color Assignment
- Orange, Blue, Red, Green, Blue
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- None, lensing surface mass, i, r, g
- Central Wavelength
- 0, 0, 772, 637, 472
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- None, None, None, None, None
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 330.723120789, -60.0333785043
- Reference Dimension
- 5625.0, 5625.0
- Reference Pixel
- 2031.95574951, 2318.48132324
- Scale
- 0.000146105696507, -0.000146118665605
- Rotation
- 0.20182369567385
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- NSF's NOIRLab
- URL
- https://noirlab.edu
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- 950 North Cherry Ave.
- City
- Tucson
- State/Province
- AZ
- Postal Code
- 85719
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- NSF's NOIRLab
- Publisher ID
- noirlab
- Resource ID
- noirlab2012a
- Resource URL
- http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noirlab2012a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2020-05-09T17:01:42+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
