The universe is divinely mystical and magical and ever so beautiful. NASA recently released a breathtaking image captured by the Hubble Space telescope. In stunning hues of purples, pinks and blues, the image offers a glorious view of the cosmos, moments before a cosmic collision.
To create this spectacular image called 'Cosmic Kaleidoscope' by the team of NASA researchers, they actually had to combine data captured from three different telescopes. The three telescopes that have been instrumental in this stellar endeavor are the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the NRAO Jansky Very Large Array and the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory.
This cosmic kaleidoscope of colors reveals the moments that occurred just before certain galactic clusters collided into one another. Galactic clusters are nothing but cosmic structures that consist of several galaxies and held together by gravity.
Post the cosmic collision, a new cosmic structure has been formed which is massive in nature and has been located in the constellation Eridanus. It is approximately 4.3 billion light years away from Earth. The new structure has been termed MACS J0416.
Each of the three telescopes apparently focused on a particular and different element of the cluster. Thereby giving the researchers the opportunity to study the details of the newly created cosmic structure MACS J0416 in a more thorough manner.
The cosmic kaleidoscope image gives an impression that the collision has occurred already and the clusters are interwoven into one another, although in actual the collision hasn't occurred yet. This was ascertained by the NASA team, since the dark matter is lined up perfectly with blue-hot gas, hinting that the two clusters are yet to collide.
Had the collision occurred and the image taken thereafter, the dark matter of the cluster and the hot gas would have been separated and the cluster wouldn't be able to distort the light from the galaxies behind it as intensely.
MACS J0146, along with five other located galaxy clusters, is playing a major role in the Hubble Frontier Fields Program. This cluster, because of its massive nature has the capability to bend the light of objects in the background. It acts as a magnifying lens and by applying this effect, researchers are enabling to find the timeworn galaxies that emerged just a few million years after the Big Bang.
