Discover Top Posts Tagged with #perseus cluster

The Perseus Cluster, Abell 426 // Michal Wierzbinski

#astronomy #astrophotography #galaxy cluster #perseus cluster #Abell 426 #galaxy #elliptical galaxy #lenticular galaxy #spiral galaxy #NGC 1275 #perseus

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2026 February 5

NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster

Image Credit & Copyright: Michal Wierzbinski, Hellas-Sky

Explanation: Active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the large and relatively nearby Perseus Cluster of Galaxies. Wild-looking at visible wavelengths, the active galaxy is also a prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission. NGC 1275 accretes matter as entire galaxies fall into it, ultimately feeding a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core. Narrowband image data used in this sharp telescopic image highlights the resulting galactic debris and filaments of glowing gas, some up to 20,000 light-years long. The filaments persist in NGC 1275, even though the turmoil of galactic collisions should destroy them. What keeps the filaments together? Observations indicate that the structures, pushed out from the galaxy's center by the black hole's activity, are held together by magnetic fields. Also known as Perseus A, NGC 1275 itself spans over 100,000 light years and lies about 230 million light years away.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

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#nasa #nasa apod #perseus cluster #2026 feb

The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies - April 5th, 1996.

"Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see in the sky. Each of the fuzzy blobs in the above picture is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. We view the cluster through the foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. It takes light roughly 300 million years to get here from there, so we only see this cluster as it existed during the age of the dinosaurs. Also known as Abell 426, the center of Perseus cluster is a prodigious source of X-ray radiation, and so helps us study how clusters formed and how gas and dark matter interact. The Perseus Cluster of galaxies is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster of galaxies, which spans over 15 degrees and contains over 1000 galaxies."

#nasa #space #cosmos #universe #astronomy #astrophysics #astrophotography #perseus cluster #galaxy cluster

NGC 1275 - Perseus A

Not all galaxies look like one of the classic structures, NGC 1275 is the main galaxy in the Perseus cluster, sporting a monster supermassive blackhole, devouring matter and spewing out long filaments of gas.

It is in fact, two galaxies, a central one, and another that 200,000 light years in front, the gas between is being pulled in from it and tidal interactions are causing huge amounts of star formation (seen as pink blobs within a darkened cloud, around 2o'clock to the centre).

In time it will be devoured and will return to it's elliptical state, awaiting the next poor galaxy to come its way.

#apod #galaxy merger #elliptical galaxies #perseus cluster #supermassive blackhole #astronomy