Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. Waterloo/B.McNamara; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Univ. Waterloo/B.McNamara; Radio: NRAO/Ohio Univ./L.Birzan et al.

Meet MS0735.6+7421: a galaxy cluster located at a distance of 2.6 billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Like all clusters, MS0735.6+7421 (we'll call it MS0735 for short) is a loose collection of galaxies that are held together by the force of gravity.

The final product above is a composite of images taken by three different observatories,  superimposed for effect. The first—taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys—shows the region in optical light. The second, from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, makes note of the superheated gases that pervade intergalactic space. Since the gas is heated to such high temperatures—reaching nearly 50 million degrees—it is diffuse and glows brightly in x-ray light, which can be seen in blue here. The third dataset came from the Very Large Array. From NASA:

 


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