Astronomers using the XMM-Newton ESA space observatory captured X-ray emission (violet) emitted by a hot gas that penetrates the XLSSC006 galactic cluster.
In the cluster live several hundred galaxies, a large amount of scattered, bright X-ray gas and a huge amount of dark matter with a total mass equivalent to about 500 trillion. sunny. Due to its remoteness, we see this galactic cluster when the Universe was 9 billion years old.
Galaxy clusters are concentrated in the center with two dominant elements. Since galactic clusters usually have only one large galaxy, we can say that XLSSC006 passes through a fusion event.
In the photo, where the X-ray frame data was combined with the tricolor composite and near-IR data, many galaxies are noticeable. Some are closer to us than the cluster itself. For example, at the top left - the spiral galaxy. The photo also shows several foreground stars belonging to our Milky Way galaxy. They are distinguished by diffraction spikes, and small purple objects are point sources of X-rays (many of them are outside the Milky Way). X-ray information is obtained in review XXL - the largest observational program XMM-Newton. The latest data release gathered information for 365 galactic clusters. These observations help astronomers improve their understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe.
