Bridge between galaxy clusters in Abell 2384 – X-ray view

An X-ray view of the Abell 2384 system, comprising two galaxy clusters located 1.2 billion light years from Earth.

The image is based on data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories.

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.

A new study based on multi-wavelength analysis of this system 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