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There are galaxies. Then there are galaxy clusters, which are made up of hundreds to thousands of galaxies held together by gravity. Then there are galaxy megaclusters — a cluster of clusters, if you will. A new James Webb Space Telescope image reveals never-before-seen details of Pandora’s Cluster, a megacluster where three galaxy clusters are merging.
Pandora’s Cluster is already a cosmic superstar because of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that allows astronomers to use a galaxy cluster like a giant magnifying glass to view more distant objects behind it. The new image is a team effort from Webb’s infrared vision and the megacluster. NASA estimates there are 50,000 sources of infrared light in the view, including many faraway galaxies made visible by the lensing effect.
“When the images of Pandora’s Cluster first came in from Webb, we were honestly a little star struck,” astronomer Rachel Bezanson of the University of Pittsburgh said in a NASA statement on Wednesday.
