Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Hubble Space Telescope Collection
Title:
The Violent Lives of Galaxies: Caught in the Cosmic Dark Matter Web
General Information:
What is an American Astronomical Society Meeting release?

A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference.

Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to dissect one of the largest structures in the universe as part of a quest to understand the violent lives of galaxies. Hubble is providing indirect evidence of unseen dark matter tugging on galaxies in the crowded, rough-and-tumble environment of a massive supercluster of hundreds of galaxies. Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the universe's mass. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys has mapped the invisible dark matter scaffolding of the supercluster Abell 901/902, as well as the detailed structure of individual galaxies embedded in it. The image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the supercluster. The magenta clumps throughout the image reveal the distribution of dark matter in the cluster. The galaxies lie within the clumps of dark matter. The image was assembled by combining a visible-light image of the supercluster taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, with a dark matter map derived from Hubble observations.

Read more: * The Full Story [ http://hubblesite.o…]
Fast Facts:
Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object Object Name: Abell 901/902 Object Description: Space Telescope A901/902 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES) Position (J2000): The STAGES area spans a quarter square degree centered on the Abell 901/2 supercluster at roughly R.A. = 10h and Dec. = -10 Constellation: Leo Dimensions and Distance: The STAGES area covers 0.5x0.5 degrees which corresponds to an area of 5x5 Megaparsecs at a redshift of z = 0.16. About the Data Data Description:

The image was created from HST data from proposal 10395: M. Gray (University of Nottingham)

The science team is being led by C. Heymans (University of British Columbia). The full list of team members is available at the STAGES team [ http://www.nottingh…] webpage.

Instrument: ACS/WFC Exposure Date(s): June and July, 2005 Exposure Time: 1.6 days Filters: F606W (V) About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, C. Heymans (University of British Columbia), M. Gray (university of Nottingham), and the STAGES Collaboration Release Date: January 10, 2008 Orientation: Dark Matter Distribution in Supercluster Abell 901/902 [ http://imgsrc.hubbl…]
note:
*Release Date*:January 10, 2008 10:00 AM (EST)
note:
*Title*:The Violent Lives of Galaxies: Caught in the Cosmic Dark Matter Web
note:
*News Release Number:*: STScI-2008-03d
facet_what:
Advanced Camera for Surveys
facet_what:
ESO
facet_what:
Leo
facet_what:
COMPASS
facet_what:
galaxies
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
facet_what:
Columbia
facet_where:
Chile
facet_where:
Washington, D.C.
facet_when:
July, 2005
facet_when:
January 10, 2008
facet_when_year:
2005
facet_when_year:
2008
UID:
SPD-HUBBLE-STScI-200 8-03d
original url:
Release Date:
January 10, 2008 10:00 AM (EST)

The Violent Lives of Galaxies: Caught in the Cosmic Dark Matter Web