This object is a huge cluster of galaxies located over 200 million light years away in the constellation of Perseus. This view, which spans almost 10 million light years, captures one of the most massive objects in the known universe, including more than 500 catalogued galaxies.
A close-up view of the galaxies at the center of this image is seen
here.
Most of the galaxies in the image are elliptical galaxies, but there are plenty of other beautiful spiral galaxies scattered about. The brightest member in the cluster, located just left of the center of the image, is NGC 1275. It is a giant elliptical galaxy and one of the brightest x-ray and radio wave sources in the sky. Hubble images of this giant elliptical galaxy show an amazing amount of structure, including red filaments of gas and darker areas towards the edge of the galaxy.
Abell galaxy clusters encompass massive space and distance and are the largest known gravitationally bound structures in the universe. The Abell catalog consists of 4073 objects - the original 2712 clusters of the original George O. Abell "Northern Survey" of 1958, supplemented with an additional 1361 clusters from the "Southern Survey" in 1989. These objects help us to appreciate the vastness of the huge universe which lies beyond the boundaries of our small planet. My Astrobin collection of Abell galaxy clusters is
here.
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