Updated
Updated · Science@NASA · Jun 18
Hubble Images CL0016+1609 Merger, Tracing Dark Matter Through 300 Lensed Galaxies
Updated
Updated · Science@NASA · Jun 18

Hubble Images CL0016+1609 Merger, Tracing Dark Matter Through 300 Lensed Galaxies

1 articles · Updated · Science@NASA · Jun 18

Summary

  • CL0016+1609 appears in new Hubble imagery as two galaxy clusters merging along the line of sight, a structure first indicated by its unusually bright X-ray signal.
  • Hubble observations from the Advanced Camera for Surveys were sought to map the cluster's dark-matter distribution by measuring gravitational lensing in visible and infrared light.
  • The image also includes Wide Field Camera 3 data from the RELICS program, which captured Hubble's first infrared images of 46 massive galaxy clusters.
  • RELICS identified about 300 high-redshift candidate galaxies magnified by cluster lensing, with the new image showing faint arc-shaped examples near the cluster's central elliptical galaxies.
  • Those measurements help researchers study both the merger itself and CL0016+1609's role in the universe's large-scale structure.

Insights

Hubble sees dark matter’s cosmic shadow, but can we ever hope to directly capture it?
If dark matter clumps more than predicted, could it be interacting with a hidden twin?
Do ghostly gravitational arcs signal a fundamental flaw in our model of the universe?