Bridge between galaxy clusters in Abell 2384

A composite view of the Abell 2384 system, comprising two galaxy clusters located 1.2 billion light years from Earth.

The X-ray view from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories is shown in blue, alongside observations in radio waves performed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India (shown in red) and optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey (shown in yellow).

The two clusters, comprising each many galaxies, vast amounts of hot gas even larger amounts of unseen dark matter, are linked by a three million light-year long bridge of hot gas that shines brightly in X-rays.

This new multi-wavelength view reveals the effects of a jet shooting away from a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy in one of the clusters.

More information: A bent bridge between two galaxy clusters