{"id":12471,"date":"2016-04-13T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12471"},"modified":"2016-04-12T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T03:20:09","slug":"eso-new-image-of-the-fornax-galaxy-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12471","title":{"rendered":"ESO: New image of the Fornax galaxy cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the latest report from\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory):<\/p>\n

Inside the Fiery Furnace<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"eso1612a[1]\"<\/a>
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This new VLT Survey Telescope image shows the central part of the cluster in great detail. At the lower-right is the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and to the left the big elliptical NGC 1399. Credit: ESO. Acknowledgement: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>This new image from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO\u2019s Paranal Observatory in Chile captures a spectacular concentration of galaxies known as the Fornax Cluster, which can be found in the southern hemisphere constellation of Fornax (The Furnace<\/em>). The cluster plays host to a menagerie of galaxies of all shapes and sizes, some of which are hiding secrets.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1612a.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

This video sequence takes us deep into the faint southern constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). Here we find a rich concentration of bright galaxies \u2014 the Fornax Galaxy Cluster. The final very detailed image is a new image of the cluster from the VLT Survey Telescope.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0ESO\/Digitized Sky Survey 2\/A. Fujii. Acknowledgement: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola.\u00a0Music:\u00a0Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Galaxies, it seems, are sociable animals and they like to gather together in large groups, known as clusters<\/a>. Actually it\u2019s\u00a0gravity<\/a> that holds the galaxies in the cluster close together as a single entity, with the pull of gravity arising from large amounts of dark matter, as well as from the galaxies we can see. Clusters can contain anything between about 100 and 1000 galaxies and can be between about 5 and 30 million light-years<\/a> across.<\/p>\n

\"eso1612b[1]\"<\/a>
The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest of such groupings beyond our Local Group of galaxies. This new VLT Survey Telescope image shows the central part of the cluster in great detail. The brightest galaxies are labelled. Credit: ESO. Acknowledgement: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Galaxy clusters do not come in neatly defined shapes so it is difficult to determine exactly where they begin and end. However, astronomers have estimated that the centre of the Fornax Cluster<\/a> is in the region of 65 million light-years from Earth. What is more accurately known is that it contains nearly sixty large galaxies, and a similar number of smaller dwarf galaxies<\/a>. Galaxy clusters like this one are commonplace in the Universe and illustrate the powerful influence of gravity over large distances as it draws together the enormous masses of individual galaxies into one region.<\/p>\n