NASA's Spitzer Telescope Spotted A Dazzling Image Of Pandora's Cluster

A stunning image of Pandora's cluster or also known as Abell 2744 was captured by the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. It is a huge galaxy cluster that resulted from four smaller galaxy clusters with a span of more than 350 million years.

The gravity of Pandora's Cluster, seen here by @NASAspitzer, is so strong that it magnifies images of other galaxies https://t.co/33PQYB9ODd pic.twitter.com/JG5lFfE2yK

— NASA (@NASA) September 28, 2016

According to NASA, the gravity of this galaxy cluster uses a technique referred to as gravitational lensing, wherein it acts as a lens to magnify images of more distant background galaxies. It was nicknamed "Pandora's cluster" because of various and strange phenomena that were unbridled by the collision.

NASA stated that fuzzy blobs in the Spitzer image are the massive galaxies at the core of the cluster. On the other hand, the astronomers will be poring over the images in search of the faint streaks of light created where the cluster magnifies a distant background galaxy. They further stated that the cluster is also being examined by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory in a collaboration called the Frontier Fields project.

The galaxies in Abel 2744 makes up about 75 percent dark matter of its mass. It has 20 percent gas that makes it very hot. This makes it shines only in X-rays. It also has a radio halo along with the many other Abell clusters. It consists of a strong central halo with an extended tail that could either be a relic radiation or an extension of the core halo. Meanwhile, the Hubble Image of Abell 2744 can be seen below.

Photo of galaxy cluster Abell 2744, taken by the Hubble telescope in January. pic.twitter.com/kVcSGm8fUG — Steve Oglesby (@SteveOglesby) December 19, 2014