Abell 2384: Bending the bridge between two galaxy clusters

Several hundred million years ago, two galaxy clusters collided and then passed through each other. This mighty event released a flood of hot gas from each galaxy cluster that formed an unusual bridge between the two objects.

This bridge is now being pummeled by particles driven away from a supermassive black hole.

Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. They contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies, vast amounts of multi-million-degree gas that glow in X-rays, and enormous reservoirs of unseen dark matter.

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Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/V.Parekh, et al

X-ray Image, Labeled.

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: NASA/CXC/NCRA/GMRT

The system known as Abell 2384 shows the giant structures that can result when two galaxy clusters collide.

A superheated gas bridge in Abell 2384 is shown in this composite image of X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton (blue), as well as the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India (red).

This new multi-wavelength view reveals the effects of a jet shooting away from a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy in one of the clusters. The jet is so powerful that it is bending the shape of the gas bridge, which extends for over 3 million light years and has the mass of about 6 trillion Suns.

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A Quick Look at Bending the Bridge Between Two Galaxy Clusters