Two Views of Interacting Galaxy Clusters

Hubble Finds Dark Matter Ring in Galaxy Cluster

This Hubble Space Telescope composite image shows a ghostly "ring" of dark matter in the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17. The ring-like structure is evident in the blue map of the cluster's dark matter distribution. The map is superimposed on a Hubble image of the cluster. The ring is...

Searching for Dark Matter in a Galaxy Cluster

This rich galaxy cluster, catalogued as Cl 0024+17, is allowing astronomers to probe the distribution of dark matter in space. The blue streaks near the center of the image are the smeared images of very distant galaxies that are not part of the cluster. The distant galaxies...

Cartwheel Galaxy

A rare and spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies appears in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope true-color image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. The new details of star birth resolved by Hubble provide an...

Simulation of Two Galaxy Clusters Colliding

Simulation of two galaxy clusters colliding. As the two clusters smash together, the dark matter falls to the center of the combined cluster and then back out. The dark matter moves outward, it begins to slow down under the pull of gravity and piles up, forming a "ring" of...