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Coma Cluster Mosaic

Coma Cluster Mosaic
This is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of a portion of the immense Coma cluster of over 1,000 galaxies, located 300 million light-years from Earth. Hubble's incredible sharpness was used to do a comprehensive census of the cluster's most diminutive members: a whopping 22,426 globular star clusters. Among the earliest homesteaders of the universe, globular star clusters are snow-globe-shaped islands of several hundred thousand ancient stars. The survey found the globular clusters scattered in the space between the galaxies. They have been orphaned from their home galaxies through galaxy tidal interactions within the bustling cluster. Astronomers will use the globular cluster field for mapping the distribution of matter and dark matter in the Coma galaxy cluster.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    12:59:48.7
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    +27:58:50
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Coma Berenices
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    321 million light-years

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    The HST observations used in this mosaic include those from programs 10861 (D. Carter), 11711 (J. Blakeslee), 12918 (K. Chiboucas), 14182 (T. Puzia), 10397 (M. West), and 14361 (M. Sun).
  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    ACS/WFC
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    May-Jun 2005, Nov 2006 - Jan 2007, March 2010, Jan 2013, Dec 2015 - Jan 2017
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F814W, F475W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Coma Cluster
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Cluster of Galaxies
  • Release Date
    November 29, 2018
  • Science Release
    Hubble Uncovers Thousands of Globular Star Clusters Scattered Among Galaxies
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, J. Mack (STScI), and J. Madrid (Australian Telescope National Facility)

Downloads

  • Full Res (FOR DOWNLOAD ONLY), 18281 × 10283
    png (342.81 MB)
  • 1000 × 562
    png (680.65 KB)
  • 4571 × 2571
    png (18.08 MB)
  • Full Res (FOR DOWNLOAD ONLY), 18281 × 10283
    tif (407.37 MB)
  • 2000 × 1124
    png (2.88 MB)
Coma Cluster Mosaic
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Cyan: F475W Orange: F814W

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Zoom and Pan of the Coma Cluster

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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