Image: PIA20052-GalaxyCluster-MOO-J1142+1527-20151103

Description: PIA20052: A Giant Gathering of Galaxies http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20052 The galaxy cluster called MOO J1142+1527 can be seen here as it existed when light left it 8.5 billion years ago. The red galaxies at the center of the image make up the heart of the galaxy cluster. This color image is constructed from multi-wavelength observations: Infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are shown in red; near-infrared and visible light captured by the Gemini Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii is green and blue; and radio light from the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA), near Owens Valley in California, is purple. In addition to galaxies, clusters also contain a reservoir of hot gas with temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees Celsius/Kelvin. CARMA was used to detect this gas, and to determine the mass of this cluster. JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer and http://spitzer.caltech.edu.
Title: PIA20052-GalaxyCluster-MOO-J1142+1527-20151103
Credit: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA20052.jpg
Author: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Gemini/CARMA
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No