Image credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, NRAO/AUI/NSF, STScI, R. van Weeren (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), and G. Ogrean (Stanford University); Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, J. Lotz (STScI), and the HFF team.

Beyond Human Vision

How colliding galaxy clusters emit the most spectacular fireworks, if only you look beyond what your eyes can see!

“Every single time you make a merger, somebody is losing his identity. And saying something different is just rubbish.” -Carlos Ghosn

By collecting huge amounts of light from space, the Hubble Space Telescope discovers and images the Universe’s most massive, distant galaxy clusters.

Image credit: NASA / STScI, of cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 in the optical, courtesy of Hubble Frontier Fields.

Yet there’s more to these objects than merely stars, as revealed by visible light.

Image credit: NASA / STScI, of cluster MACS J0416.1–2403 in the optical, courtesy of Hubble Frontier Fields.

At the high-end of the energy spectrum, X-rays, as imaged by NASA'sChandra observatory, reveal superheated gas and plasma.

Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/G.Ogrean et al., of galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 in the X-ray, courtesy of Chandra.

When extremely high-velocity gas clouds collide, the density and temperature both spike, resulting in the emission of energetic…