Education Activities To Accompany Chandra Data Analysis Software M31 & Coma
Big, Bigger, Biggest
Part II: Clusters of Galaxies
Perhaps it is not surprising that these huge galaxies with their enormous gravitational fields would cluster together. But it would still appear that the individual galaxies are the largest structures known in the universe. Indeed, some of the giant radio lobes associated with radio wavelength emission of certain peculiar galaxies are known to be over 5 million light years in extent. That means that the sizes of these objects are greater than the entire distance to our nearby galaxies.
Yet, this view was shattered in the 1970’s, when the Uhuru and HEAO satellites detected X-rays pouring out from between the galaxies in rich clusters. Spectral analysis of X-rays at different wavelengths revealed that this emission was due to gas heated to 10-100 million (degrees) Kelvin.
