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Abell 2744 (Hubble)

Galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Many yellow and white galaxies appear across this black swath of space, with the largest appearing toward the center. Small, thin blue-white lines and tiny red points of light are peppered across the image.

Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, is a giant pile-up of four smaller galaxy clusters. The cluster is so massive that its powerful gravity bends the light from galaxies far behind it, making the background objects appear larger and brighter in a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Shown in this Hubble image, the mammoth Abell 2744 cluster is located about 3.5 billion light-years away.

  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Abell 2744
  • Release Date
    March 21, 2019
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb to Explore Galaxies from Cosmic Dawn to Present Day
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, HFF Team, Jennifer Lotz (STScI), Matt Mountain (STScI), Anton Koekemoer (STScI)

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What Is Cosmological Redshift?

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Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, HFF Team, Jennifer Lotz (STScI), Matt Mountain (STScI), Anton Koekemoer (STScI)

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