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Credit & Copyright: Bernhard Hubl,
CEDIC 2017
Explanation:
The galaxies of Abell 2666 lie far beyond the Milky Way, some
340 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation
Pegasus.
Framed in this sharp
telescopic image, the pretty cluster galaxies are
gathered behind scattered, spiky, Milky Way stars.
At cluster center is giant elliptical galaxy NGC 7768, the
central dominant galaxy of the cluster.
As the cluster forms, such massive galaxies are thought to grow
by mergers of galaxies
that fall through the center of the cluster's gravitational well.
Typical of dominant cluster galaxies, NGC 7768
likely harbors
a supermassive black hole.
At the estimated distance of Abell 2666, this cosmic frame would
span about 5 million light-years.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: galaxy cluster
Publications with words: galaxy cluster
See also: