| This
Chandra image shows gravitationally-bound, hot gas enveloping the distant
galaxy known as 3C294. This X-ray emission is considered a signature for
an extremely massive cluster of galaxies – one of the largest known
structures in the Universe. Astronomers believe they have captured the cluster
surrounding 3C294 at a time when the Universe was only 20 percent of its
current age. This faraway cluster may therefore have important implications
for the understanding how the Universe evolved from a much earlier epoch. |
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Chandra's
image reveals an hourglass-shaped region of X rays surrounding the previously
known radio galaxy (seen as the blue central object). The intensity of the
X-ray emission is shown in red coloring for low-intensity X rays, green
for intermediate, and blue for the highest observed energies. The vast clouds
of hot gas that surround clusters of galaxies are thought to be heated by
the collapse toward the center of the cluster. Until Chandra, X-ray telescopes
have not had the needed sensitivity to identify this signature X-ray emission
of such distant galaxy clusters. Chandra observed 3C294 for 5.4 hours on
October 29, 2000, with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer. |
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