16
Dec 11

Abell 2052: A Galaxy Cluster Gets Sloshed

Source: Chandra CXC


Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/BU/E.Blanton; Optical: ESO/VLT

Like wine in a glass, vast clouds of hot gas are sloshing back and forth in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth. X-ray data (blue) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the hot gas in this dynamic system, and optical data (gold) from the Very Large Telescope shows the galaxies. The hot, X-ray bright gas has an average temperature of about 30 million degrees.(read more)

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16
Dec 11

Young star rebels against its parent cloud

Source: ESA/Hubble Photo Release heic1118


Hubble view of star-forming region S106. Image credits:NASA & ESA.

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 has captured this image of a giant cloud of hydrogen gas illuminated by a bright young star. The image shows how violent the end stages of the star-formation process can be, with the young object shaking up its stellar nursery.(read more)

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