Astronomy Picture of the Week – Hubble Finds Ring of Dark Matter
This composite image of a ghostly ring of dark matter in the galaxy cluster Cl 0024+17 was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in November 2004. A false color map is superimposed on a Hubble image of the cluster in order to make the cluster’s dark matter distribution more evident.
Of course dark matter cannot be seen directly, but its presence can be inferred by measuring how the gravity of the cluster Cl 0024+17 distorts the light of more distant galaxies located behind it from Earth’s point of view. This optical illusion is called gravitational lensing.
It has been suggested by astronomers that the dark matter ring was formed when two gigantic clusters collided and merged together to form Cl 0024+17.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)
Would you like to receive similar articles by email?
Paul Tomaszewski
Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
2 Comments
Marty
Would that also creat a black hole?
Marty
I mean create a black hole. Sorry for the typo