News Release Archive:

News Release 26 of 271

June 22, 2011 09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2011-17

Pandora's Cluster – Clash of the Titans

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	Abell 2744, Pandora's Cluster
Object Description:	Galaxy Cluster with Gravitational Lensing
Position (J2000):	R.A. 00h 14m 19s.51 Dec. -30° 23' 19''.18
Constellation:	Sculptor
Redshift:	The redshift of Abell 2744 is z=0.308.

About the Data

Data Description:	The image was created from Hubble data from proposal 11689: R. Dupke (University of Michigan), N. Benitez (Astrophysical Institute of Andalucía, Spain), J. Krick (California Institute of Technology), B. Bregman (University of Michigan), D. Coe (STScI), L. Sodre (University of Sao Paulo), T. Broadhurst (Tel Aviv University, Wise Observatory), and R. Bernstein (University of California, Santa Cruz). The science team is led by J. Merten (Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg/Astronomical Observatory of Bologna).
Instrument:	ACS/WFC
Exposure Date(s):	October 27-30, 2009
Exposure Time:	12 hours
Filters:	F438W (B), F606W (V), and F814W (I)

About the Release

Credit:

NASA, ESA, J. Merten (Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg/Astronomical Observatory of Bologna), and D. Coe (STScI)

Release Date:

June 22, 2011

Color:

The image is a composite of separate exposures made by Hubble Space Telescope ACS detectors, the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the Chandra ACIS detector. Hubble provides the central, most detailed part of the image, while the VLT, which has a wider field of view, provides the outer parts of the image. A map of the cluster's dark matter distribution has also been applied to the image. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

Dark Matter Map; HST F438W (B); VLT B	blue
HST F606W (V); VLT R	green
Chandra X-ray data; HST F814W (I); VLT I	red

Orientation/Scale: