Galaxy Clusters tagged posts

Scientists Map the Largest Magnetic fields in Galaxy Clusters using Synchrotron Intensity Gradient

Scientists have mapped the largest magnetic fields in galaxy clusters using synchrotron intensity gradient
A high-resolution image of the magnetic field in the El Gordo cluster, including the Chandra X-ray image (blue part of the image), the NASA JWST infrared image (background galaxies of the image), and the measured magnetic fields (streamlines). Credits: Chandra X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers; JWST infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA; Magnetic field lines: Yue Hu.

In a new study, scientists have mapped magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, revealing the impact of galactic mergers on magnetic-field structures and challenging previous assumptions about the efficiency of turbulent dynamo processes in the amplification of these fields.

Galaxy clusters are large, gravitationally bound systems containing numerous galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter...

Read More

Matter comprises of 31% of the Total amount of Matter and Energy in the Universe

A research team relies on measuring the number of galaxy members to determine the mass of galaxy clusters. One of the most interesting and important questions in cosmology is, “How much matter exists in the universe?” An international team, including scientists at Chiba University, has now succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter for the second time. Reporting in The Astrophysical Journal, the team determined that matter makes up 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, with the remainder consisting of dark energy.

“Cosmologists believe that only about 20% of the total matter is made of regular or ‘baryonic’ matter, which includes stars, galaxies, atoms, and life,” explains first author Dr...

Read More

Artificial Intelligence discovers Secret Equation for ‘Weighing’ Galaxy Clusters

Astrophysicists at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Flatiron Institute and their colleagues have leveraged artificial intelligence to uncover a better way to estimate the mass of colossal clusters of galaxies. The AI discovered that by just adding a simple term to an existing equation, scientists can produce far better mass estimates than they previously had.

The improved estimates will enable scientists to calculate the fundamental properties of the universe more accurately, the astrophysicists reported March 17, 2023, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“It’s such a simple thing; that’s the beauty of this,” says study co-author Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, a research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in...

Read More

Plasma Jets reveal Magnetic Fields far, far away

A black hole (marked by the red x) at the centre of galaxy MRC 0600-399 emits a jet of particles that bends into a ‘double-scythe’ T-shape that follows the magnetic field lines at the galaxy subcluster’s boundary.
(Image Credit: Modified from Chibueze, Sakemi, Ohmura et al. (2021) Nature Fig. 1(b))

Radio telescope images enable a new way to study magnetic fields in galaxy clusters millions of light years away. For the first time, researchers have observed plasma jets interacting with magnetic fields in a massive galaxy cluster 600 million light years away, thanks to the help of radio telescopes and supercomputer simulations. The findings, published in the journal Nature, can help clarify how such galaxy clusters evolve.

Galaxy clusters can contain up to thousands of galaxies bound to...

Read More