http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —Bright arcs are smeared around the heart of galaxy cluster Abell S1077 in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble space telescope. The arcs are stretched images of distant galaxies distorted by the cluster's enormous gravitational field. http://phys.org/news287822870.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 May 2013 07:48:02 EST news287822870 (Phys.org)—Two teams of astronomers have used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes to map the distribution of dark matter in a galaxy cluster known as Abell 383, which is located about 2.3 billion light years from Earth. Not only were the researchers able to find where the dark matter lies in the two dimensions across the sky, they were also able to determine how the dark matter is distributed along the line of sight. http://phys.org/news281263332.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:10:01 EST news281263332 (Phys.org)—This composite image shows the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520, formed from a violent collision of massive galaxy clusters that is located about 2.4 billion light years from Earth. http://phys.org/news281263366.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:00:02 EST news281263366 (Phys.org)—A busy patch of space has been captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Scattered with many nearby stars, the field also has numerous galaxies in the background. http://phys.org/news278151091.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:11:37 EST news278151091 (Phys.org)—The Universe loves to fool our eyes, giving the impression that celestial objects are located at the same distance from Earth. A good example can be seen in this spectacular image produced by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxies NGC 5011B and NGC 5011C are imaged against a starry background. http://phys.org/news276156219.html Space & Earth Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:03:48 EST news276156219 (Phys.org)—Astronomers were puzzled earlier this year when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted an overabundance of dark matter in the heart of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520. This observation was surprising because dark matter and galaxies should be anchored together, even during a collision between galaxy clusters. http://phys.org/news273415504.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:45:32 EST news273415504 (Phys.org)—By combining the power of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and one of nature's zoom lenses, astronomers have found what is probably the most distant galaxy yet seen in the Universe. The object offers a peek back into a time when the Universe was only 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. http://phys.org/news272215642.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:27:37 EST news272215642 In a quest to learn more about our own galaxy, a Sydney astronomer has identified dozens of previously unknown galaxies in a distant cluster. http://phys.org/news270197978.html Space & Earth Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:10:02 EST news270197978 (Phys.org)—Recording light from millions of light years away and then sending it to the Indiana University Data Center at the corner of 10th Street and the State Road 45/46 Bypass, a new camera at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona's Sonoran desert will image an area of sky five times that of the full moon, yet still focus at the equivalent of seeing a baseball from 30 miles away. http://phys.org/news267959127.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:05:51 EST news267959127 (Phys.org)—Most galaxies lie in clusters, groupings of several to many thousands of galaxies. Our Milky Way galaxy itself is a member of the "Local Group," a band of about fifty galaxies whose other large member is the Andromeda Galaxy about 2.3 million light-years away. The closest large cluster of galaxies to us is the Virgo Cluster, with about 2000 members, whose center is about 50 million light-years away. The space between all these galaxies is not empty, but is filled with hot gas whose temperature is of order ten million kelvin, or even higher. http://phys.org/news265358760.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Aug 2012 07:46:08 EST news265358760 (Phys.org) -- Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster -- one of the largest objects in the Universe -- that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of this cluster, known as the Phoenix Cluster, with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the NSF’s South Pole Telescope and eight other world-class observatories, may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures, and the galaxies that inhabit them, evolve. http://phys.org/news264257822.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:57:41 EST news264257822 An international team of astronomers has used the International LOFAR Telescope from ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, to study the formation of the galaxy cluster Abell 2256. http://phys.org/news257067518.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 May 2012 08:38:50 EST news257067518 This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could seem like a quiet patch of sky at first glance. But zooming into the central part of a galaxy cluster — one of the largest structures of the Universe — is rather like looking at the eye of the storm. http://phys.org/news255410646.html Space & Earth Sat, 05 May 2012 04:24:33 EST news255410646 (Phys.org) -- The Earth is not at rest. It orbits the Sun, which in turn orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which in turn moves within the Local Group of Galaxies - a collection of about fifty four galaxies in our "neighborhood" (that is, within about ten million light-years of Earth). The Local Group itself is "falling" toward the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, a set of over one thousand galaxies about fifty million lights years away in the direction of the constellation of Virgo, and whose gravity pulls the Milky Way. After the cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered in 1960, astronomers began searching for signs of these motions of Earth with respect to the background light. First hints came in the mid-1970s and 1980s, and signaled a serious problem: the measured motion of the Earth with respect to the cosmic background was considerably smaller than the sum of all the movements listed above. One possible solution was that our understanding of the distribution of galaxies was incorrect. http://phys.org/news253963511.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:25:30 EST news253963511 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two teams of astronomers have used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes to map the distribution of dark matter in a galaxy cluster known as Abell 383, which is located about 2.3 billion light years from Earth. Not only were the researchers able to find where the dark matter lies in the two dimensions across the sky, they were also able to determine how the dark matter is distributed along the line of sight. http://phys.org/news250949559.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:12:55 EST news250949559 Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, University of Chicago scientists working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a uniquely close-up look at the brightest gravitationally magnified galaxy yet discovered. http://phys.org/news250441235.html Space & Earth Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:00:44 EST news250441235 (PhysOrg.com) -- The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has imaged a fascinating collection of interacting galaxies in the Hercules galaxy cluster. The sharpness of the new picture, and the hundreds of galaxies captured in great detail in less than three hours of observations, attest to the great power of the VST and its huge camera OmegaCAM to explore the nearby Universe. http://phys.org/news250324366.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:32:56 EST news250324366 A decade ago, Houston businessman and philanthropist George P. Mitchell was so certain there were big discoveries to be made in physics and astronomy and that they should come out of Texas A&M University, he put money on it, endowing the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy to bring the world's most eminent minds in physics and astronomy to Aggieland. http://phys.org/news250268232.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:57:28 EST news250268232 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers has discovered the most distant cluster of red galaxies ever observed using FourStar, a new and powerful near-infrared camera on the 6.5m Magellan Baade Telescope. The galaxy cluster is located 10.5 billion light years away in the direction of the constellation Leo. It is made up of 30 galaxies packed closely together, forming the earliest known "galaxy city" in the universe. The findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. http://phys.org/news250261635.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:07:57 EST news250261635 (PhysOrg.com) -- Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope got a uniquely close-up look at the brightest "magnified" galaxy yet discovered. http://phys.org/news247425733.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:22:18 EST news247425733 (PhysOrg.com) -- This composite image shows the central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 4151. X-rays (blue) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are combined with optical data (yellow) showing positively charged hydrogen (H II) from observations with the 1-meter Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope on La Palma. The red ring shows neutral hydrogen detected by radio observations with the NSF's Very Large Array. This neutral hydrogen is part of a structure near the center of NGC 4151 that has been distorted by gravitational interactions with the rest of the galaxy, and includes material falling towards the center of the galaxy. The yellow blobs around the red ellipse are regions where star formation has recently occurred. http://phys.org/news244270886.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:03:29 EST news244270886 (PhysOrg.com) -- Like wine in a glass, vast clouds of hot gas are sloshing back and forth in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth. X-ray data (blue) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the hot gas in this dynamic system, and optical data (gold) from the Very Large Telescope shows the galaxies. The hot, X-ray bright gas has an average temperature of about 30 million degrees. http://phys.org/news243069583.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:10:01 EST news243069583 (PhysOrg.com) -- The path traveled by a light beam will bend in the presence of matter. This remarkable prediction, reached by Einstein in his theory of general relativity, was confirmed by observations of the solar eclipse of 1919. One consequence of this phenomenon is that light from a distant galaxy passing by an intervening galaxy en route to earth will be distorted, much in the way that light passing through a glass lens will be bent, sometimes deforming the appearance of objects seen through it. http://phys.org/news241085192.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:06:41 EST news241085192 (PhysOrg.com) -- The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been used to make an image of galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2-0847. The apparently distorted shapes of distant galaxies in the background is caused by an invisible substance called dark matter, whose gravity bends and distorts their light rays. MACS 1206 has been observed as part of a new survey of galaxy clusters using Hubble. http://phys.org/news237719044.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:04:15 EST news237719044 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists has studied the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora’s Cluster. They have pieced together the cluster’s complex and violent history using telescopes in space and on the ground, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. Abell 2744 seems to be the result of a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate galaxy clusters and this complex collision has produced strange effects that have never been seen together before. http://phys.org/news227954213.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:37:09 EST news227954213 (PhysOrg.com) -- Across the universe, galaxies band together in clusters so huge it can take 10 million years for light to travel from one end of a galaxy cluster to the other. Probing these metropolises is no easy task. But Assistant Professor of Astronomy Andisheh Mahdavi has found a centuries-old math formula that could help scientists map the shape and size of galaxy clusters. http://phys.org/news226825033.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:34:57 EST news226825033 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team at Bristol University have found irrevocable evidence that explains how an unusual type of galaxy, so-called compact ellipticals (cEs), are formed and have discovered two examples in which they see the process of formation in action. Team leader Dr. Avon Huxor presented their work on Wednesday 20 April at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales. http://phys.org/news222614957.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:29:49 EST news222614957 (PhysOrg.com) -- X-ray observations made by the Suzaku observatory provide the clearest picture to date of the size, mass and chemical content of a nearby cluster of galaxies. The study also provides the first direct evidence that million-degree gas clouds are tightly gathered in the cluster's outskirts. http://phys.org/news220204746.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:59:20 EST news220204746 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two new studies have put Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to the test like never before, using observations of galaxy clusters to study the properties of gravity on cosmic scales. http://phys.org/news220174620.html Space & Earth Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:37:43 EST news220174620 Astronomers have used an armada of telescopes on the ground and in space, including the Very Large Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile to discover and measure the distance to the most remote mature cluster of galaxies yet found. Although this cluster is seen when the Universe was less than one quarter of its current age it looks surprisingly similar to galaxy clusters in the current Universe. http://phys.org/news218877103.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:12:16 EST news218877103