The Antria Galaxy Cluster is a group of at least 230 galaxies brought together by gravity. This galaxy cluster is rare. Unlike most other galaxy clusters, there appears to be no dominant galaxy within it.

Galaxy clusters, like stars and galaxies, are fundamental building blocks of the universe.

These structures typically contain thousands of galaxies of all ages, shapes, and sizes.

They have a mass about a million times the mass of the Sun and are formed over billions of years as groups of small galaxies slowly come together.

At one point, galaxy clusters were believed to be the largest structures in the universe, until they were supplanted by the discovery of superclusters in the 1980s. Its length spans hundreds of millions of light years.

However, there is one thing the cluster holds on to. Because superclusters are not held together by gravity, galaxy clusters still hold the title of the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe.

“Galaxy clusters are some of the largest known structures in the known universe,” NOIRLab astronomers said in a statement.

“Current models suggest that these giant structures form as clumps of dark matter, and that the galaxies that form within them are pulled together by gravity to form groups of dozens of galaxies, which then merge to form groups of several dozen galaxies. This suggests that they form clusters of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.

“One such group is antoria clusterlocated approximately 130 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Antolia. ”

The Antlia cluster, also known as Abell S636, 3rd closest Add it to the local group after the Virgo and Fornax clusters.

The new images of the Antolia star cluster were captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on NSF's Victor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a program of NSF's NOIRLab.

It captures only a portion of the 230 galaxies so far discovered to make up this cluster, as well as thousands of background galaxies.

“Antria Cluster” host Two giant elliptical galaxies: NGC3268 and NGC 3258,” the astronomers said.

“These central galaxies are surrounded by numerous faint dwarf galaxies.”

“Based on X-ray observations that revealed the existence of a 'rope' of globular clusters along the optical peak region between these two galaxies, we believe that these two galaxies are in the process of merging. Masu.”

“This may be evidence that the Antlia cluster is actually two smaller clusters joined together.”

“The cluster is rich in lenticular galaxies (a type of disk galaxy with little interstellar medium and therefore little continuous star formation), as well as some irregular galaxies,” the researchers added. .

“Many rarer, lower-luminosity dwarf galaxies have been discovered within this cluster, including ultracompact dwarfs, compact elliptical galaxies, and blue compact dwarfs.”

“The Antria cluster may also contain subtypes of dwarf spheroidal and superdiffuse galaxies, but further investigation is needed to confirm these.”

“Many of these galaxy types have been identified within the past few decades, as advances in observational instruments and data analysis techniques have allowed us to better capture the low luminosity and relatively small size of these galaxies. It just happened.”

“Assessing galaxy types allows us to plot details of their evolution, and some galaxies are rich in dark matter, providing further opportunities to understand this mysterious material, which makes up 25% of the universe. We will provide it.”