MASSIVE MERGER OF GALAXIES IS THE MOST POWERFUL ON RECORD
VISUALS FOR DR. PATRICK HENRY:
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Item 1 - X-ray Brightness Map: This map shows "surface brightness" or how luminous the region is. The larger of the two galaxy clusters is brighter, shown here as a white and red spot. A second cluster resides about "2 o'clock" from this, shown by a batch of yellow surrounded by green. Luminosity is related to density, so the densest regions (cluster cores) are the brightest regions. The white color corresponds to regions of the highest surface brightness, followed by red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ Patrick Henry et al.
Click on image to view MPG version | Quicktime version
Click on image to view MPG version | Quicktime version
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Item 2: Cosmic Head On Collision - This animation details what the scientists are calling the perfect cosmic storm: galaxy clusters that collided like two high-pressure weather fronts and created hurricane-like conditions, tossing galaxies far from their paths and churning shock waves of 100-million-degree gas through intergalactic space. In the bottom animation, tiny dots represent galaxies, each containing billions of stars. The top animation shows only inter-cluster gas; most of the cluster's mass is "free" gas, not galaxies. Credit: NASA
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Item 3 - Temperature Map: This image shows the temperature of gas in and around the two merging galaxy clusters, based directly on X-ray data. The galaxies themselves are difficult to identify; the image highlights the hot "invisible" gas between the clusters heated by shock waves. The white color corresponds to regions of the highest temperature -- million of degrees, hotter than the surface of the Sun -- followed by red, orange, yellow and blue. Credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ Patrick Henry et al.
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Click here to view downloadable hi-res stills | Quicktime version
Item 4- Temperature Animations - This artist's concept shows the merging clouds of gas. The blue colors in this animation indicate regions within the clouds wiwth the highest pressure. Credit: NASA
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Item 5 - Pressure Map: This image is a pressure map of gas in and around two merging galaxy clusters, each containing hundreds of galaxies. The galaxies themselves are confined within a region around the two "spots" of white. The white color corresponds to regions of the highest pressure, followed by red, orange, green, blue and purple. The centers of the clusters have the highest pressure, thus this map helps astronomers understand the location and motion of the clusters. Credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ Patrick Henry et al.
Click on image to view MPG version
Click here to view downloadable hi-res stills | Quicktime version
Click on image to view MPG version
Click here to view downloadable hi-res stills | Quicktime version
Item 6 - Weather Map Animations: Scientists are calling the event the perfect cosmic storm: galaxy clusters that collided like two high-pressure weather fronts and created hurricane-like conditions, tossing galaxies far from their paths and churning shock waves of 100-million-degree gas through intergalactic space. Credit: NASA
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VISUALS FOR DR. GUS EVRARD:
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Item 7- Simulation of Cluster Merger: This computer simulation, prepared for a recent workshop held at Santa Barbara, shows the evolution of a galaxy cluster. Credit: August Evrard et al.
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VISUALS FOR DR. RICHARD MUSHOTZKY:
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Item 8 - This is a computer simulation of the large-scale structure of the Universe, created by a group of scientists known as the Virgo Consortium. The box "measures" 300 million light years on a side. The big bright spots are clusters of galaxies, while the smaller dots represent individual galaxies and groups of galaxies. The knot near the lower center of the picture appears to be what we believe is a good representation of the merger system Abell 754. The filamentary structure of the Universe is apparent, and we believe that mergers happen at the intersection of the filaments. In some sense the merging clusters "hit" each other at these locations. Credit: The Virgo Consortium
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Items 9 and 10
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Item 9 - Here we see an enlargement of the central region in the simulation on the left, showing a higher-resolution calculation of the merger. In this picture we can see the structure of the two merging clusters as well as smaller groups that will later merge into Abell 754. Note, however, that this image represents the distribution of dark matter, not gas. Because gas is attracted by the gravity from dark mater (and is heated as it flows down dark matter's gravitational well), the X-ray images of cluster gas serves as a tracer for dark matter. Credit: The Virgo Consortium
Item 10 - Once again, the X-ray brightness map of Abell 754 made from real data collected by XMM-Newton. Scientists say that this map matches the simulated dark matter map (above, right) and simulated temperature maps from the Virgo Consortium. Refer to http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/Virgo/ for more simulations. Image credit: ESA/ XMM-Newton/ Patrick Henry et al.
XMM
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Item 11 - An artist conception of the XMM-Newton satellite. Credit: ESA
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