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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: New Dark Matter Map Shows Violent Life of Galaxies


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Four deep pink clumps show where dark matter surrounds clusters of galaxies in the distant supercluster known as Abell 901/902.

This new dark matter map, overlaid on a visible image of the supercluster, revealed to astronomers the violent lives of galaxies as they move from the outskirts of clusters toward the cores.

Image courtesy NASA, ESA, C. Heymans (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), M. Gray (University of Nottingham, U.K.), M. Barden (Innsbruck), and the STAGES collaboration