Close encounter with a cluster

Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:28 PM by Alan Boyle

NASA / ESA / STScI / AURA

The galaxy IC 4040 dominates the stage in this detail taken from Hubble's
view of the Coma Cluster. Click on the image for a zoomable version.

If galaxies are your thing, you simply have to zoom in on the Hubble Space Telescope's latest picture of the Coma Cluster, one of the densest collections of galaxies found to date.

The image, released today as part of the Hubble Heritage program, was assembled from data gathered by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in late 2006 and early 2007.

The entire cluster encompasses a spherical shape more than 20 million light-years in diameter, more than 300 million light-years from Earth in the northern constellation Coma Berenices. Hubble's mega-view takes in a scene several million light-years across, about a third of the way out from the cluster's center.

Hundreds of galaxies can be seen in the full-resolution view, which you can peruse as a zoomable HD View image. When you get to the HD View version, you can tweak the tone by clicking on a button in the upper right corner of the image.

If you don't want to go the HD View route, you can still feast your eyes on the HubbleSite's zoomable image. But we hope you'll find HD View to be a cool way of experiencing space imagery, not only from Hubble but also from the Earth-observing Landsat 7 satellite.

The star of the Coma Cluster show is the spiral galaxy highlighted in the detail image you see above, designated IC 4040. The configuration of the spiral's dusty arms suggest that the galaxy has been disturbed in the past, the Hubble Heritage team says in today's image advisory.

Below IC 4040 and a little bit to the left is a lenticular galaxy known as RB67 110. If you look closely in the zoomable view, you'll see a tiny spiral galaxy just to the right. This labeled image from the Hubble team provides a guide. To put Hubble's view in its proper context, you can peruse this Digital Sky Survey image of the full cluster, or click on this zoom-in video from the European Space Agency.

Most of the galaxies in the picture (and in the full cluster) are elliptical galaxies, relatively featureless "fuzzballs" that tend to be on the older side of the scale. Astronomers believe ellipticals result from galactic collisions, such as the one that's expected when the Andromeda Galaxy runs into our own Milky Way billions of years from now.

If galaxies are your thing, you don't need to stop with the Coma Cluster: You can also check out the galactic collisions recently documented by Hubble - and click through our collection of the greatest hits from the cosmos.

Update for 1:20 a.m. ET June 11: I should add that the HubbleSite has lots of other zoomable images to enjoy. You can find them using a Google search or Live Search. (Live Search is powered by Microsoft, which is a partner in the msnbc.com joint venture. HD View was developed by Microsoft Research.) To learn more about zoom tools, check out the Zoomify Web site.

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Comments

Thank you to Hubble and all those who helped keep up there. Words cannot describe.

John Robledo, New Braunfels, TX (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:22 AM)

TOO BAD IT COSTS $300 TO VIEW THE IMAGE, because you need to have Windows to be able to open the page!Who knew that Hubble's magnificent images were only viewable on the worst operating system on the market, Microsoft Windows. Too bad for all the MAC and Linux users out there.....

What happened to honest journalism that wasn't funded by big companies????

Upset Mac User (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:22 AM)

When we lived in Az, we visited the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. They have constructed a scale model of our solar system where you start at the sun and the inner solar system and you finish at Pluto. I can't remember the distance from Sun to Pluto in the model, but it was about a city block long (couple hundred feet). When you reach Pluto they have a sign that says if you want to travel to the star nearest to our Sun (a mere 4 light years away) on the same scale you would have to walk to Boise Idaho. A distance which feels much further when you consider that it only took a few minutes to walk from the Sun to Pluto in the model. In other words, at that scale, your walking speed is *much* faster than the fastest space probe which take decades to travel to Pluto. Now consider the 2 million light years to Andromeda, not to mention to any of our "closest" neighbors on our arm of the Milky Way.

Richard, Utah (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:24 AM)

For those people that say we should not spend money on space but in "our own back yard"... people... seriously... we are not flying dollar bills into space and launching it into the sun. The money we spend on space exploration typically goes to American aerospace companies, American engineers, etc. You see where I'm going with this. The money stays on earth and circulates in our own economy in a meaningful way.

John Doe, Seattle, Wash. (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:25 AM)

Replying to the comment of "Delmar Fairchild, Barron, WI," giving in to hopeless resignation in dealing with the vastness of space, (to which I might add the lethal nature of much interstellar radiation), I'd like to point out the "impossibility"of reaching the moon even whilst 16th C. Leonardo da Vinci was speculating on the possibility of single winged heavier than air aircraft. I myself have been speculating on the possibility of forms of travel unlikely to be realized in this Century but which require nothing more than a very detailed knowledge of your target destination. The calculations involved are probably beyond present human capability, but I'd need someone to tell me why my speculations are not theoretically possible, based on Russel and Frege's observations on axiomatic mathematics. All I'm trying to suggest is embodied in a 60's lyric which went, "Things get a little easier, once you understand!" When I was a boy one of my teachers scoffed at the biblical notion of any entity which could store and access detailed information on every human being who ever walked the planet. Nowadays that's not such an impossible concept, technically, whether we believe it or not!!

CLC King (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:27 AM)

Sorry about that, Upset Mac User. You can still see the zoomable image from HubbleSite by clicking on this URL:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/
releases/2008/24/image/a/format/zoom/

... Absolutely free.

Alan Boyle (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:29 AM)

Replying to the comment of "Delmar Fairchild, Barron, WI," giving in to hopeless resignation in dealing with the vastness of space, (to which I might add the lethal nature of much interstellar radiation, I'd like to point out the "impossibility"of reaching the moon even whilst 16th C. Leonardo da Vinci was speculating on the possibility of single winged heavier than air aircraft. I myself have been speculating on the possibility of forms of travel unlikely to be realized in this Century but which require nothing more than a very detailed knowledge of your target destination. The calculations involved are probably beyond present human capability, but I'd need someone to tell me why my speculations are not theoretically possible, based on Russel and Frege's observations on axiomatic mathematics. All I'm trying to suggest is embodied in a 60's lyric which went, "Things get a little easier, once you understand!" When I was a boy one of my teachers scoffed at the biblical notion of any entity which could contain detailed information on every human being who ever walked the planet. Nowadays that's not such an impossible concept, technically, whether we believe it or not!!

Charles King, Medford, MA (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:30 AM)

Nice picture.. I do like "Science and Technology" headlines on the front page on occasion but could you make the fact that this article was, in large part, just a plug for the "HD viewer" a little less obvious?

Peter Hallum (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:34 AM)

I forgot to add, in case anyone thought I was suggesting something easy, that my theory for new means of propulsion which would make distance irrelevant would require expanded explanations of theories of continua, and Einstein's speculations on what he called, "Spooky action at a distance."

Charles King, Medford, MA (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:43 AM)

So this just happened, some would have us believe, with a BIG BANG. Where did the energy/matter come from for the BANG? It had no beginning and it is has no end. Sounds like the definition of God, doesn't it yet folks that believe in God as Creator are riduculed for their intellectual foolishness.

We must choose in what or in Whom we will believe. We know so little with certainty that faith is a component whatever you believe.

Glenn, St. Louis, MO (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:50 AM)

Delmar,

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, we cannot foresee our future accomplishments with regard to technology and more importantly our understanding of physics. If I were to make my predictions based on our present level of technology, then yes, we are most certainly doomed. Our paths and ideas are bound by our present understanding of the laws of physics, so we have no concept of building to break those laws, thus we cannot move fast enough to travel or build a craft to support us for the time needed to reach another galaxy.

And what would the point be? Going to Andromeda is much less reasonable than exploring our own huge galaxy. As it stands, man has about 500k years left before the sun begins to expand and our earthly temps start to rise to hellish levels. So our only hope is that in the future, man confirms the existence of worm holes and has the power to control and exploit them. If not, we will be a burnt ember and eventually a frozen pebble approaching absolute zero.

Emery Rudolph, Owings Mills, Maryland (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:50 AM)

This is in response to Delmar Fairchilds post.We will probably expore the nearest solar systems the same way we have this one with very advanced robotic explorers, and by the time we are ready for that they should have at least a rudimentary self awareness/conciousness so as to be able to react to any situation that it comes across.Even the unlikely possibility it encounters intelligent life out there. The immense distances and the extreme lengths of these missions means it will probably be centuries before we have a good picture of our nearest neighbors. Anything farther out probably will be out of reach for us with the systems accelerating away from each other as they are.

Eric B, Phoenix, AZ (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:01 AM)

so earth is like the '300 million light years ago' planet for others?! Cool!
God ROCKS!

Susan, Boston (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:09 AM)

Again, I'd like to emphasize that this particular image can be zoomed into with any Flash-enabled browser via the HubbleSite. And the HubbleSite has lots more images that are zoomable. Here are a couple of links that will help you find them:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zoomable+site%3Ahubblesite.org

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=zoomable+site%3Ahubblesite.org&form=QBLH

Alan Boyle (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:12 AM)

This is absolulety the greatest thing since peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I am wowed, breathless and my heart is racing with excitment about the possibilites of HD and viewing more stellar cosmos photos. Great!

Dennis T., Mesa, AZ (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:17 AM)

Its a shame that MSNBC purposely ignores Linux web browsers, including Firefox, when they are perfectly capable of rendering this exact same image. Shame on MSNBC's web staff!

The Dude (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:20 AM)

Thank you NASA...you make my day! It's so amazing.

D.Sanchez,Hong Kong, China (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:40 AM)

I have a newer PC and it meets all the system requirements, but I get the message "Could not create scene from file." Any fixes for this?

K Ukerwood, Redmond Wash (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:48 AM)

Science has given us the ability to not only see the outer reaches of the galaxy, but to move off this tiny rock we call Earth. Many factors such as the survival of the species, learning about new resources and techniques that add to our standards of living, maths and physics will also help us secure the health of earth. This planet is too small. For the human race not only to survive but to succeed with positive results and positive feelings that drive us, we are taking the right steps. NASA is also encouraging other comunities to take part - the human race should be considered to be on race, one team. We have the resources and know-how and we should take the opportunity.

Chris Dias, Budapest, Hungary (American - moved) (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:03 AM)

Dear K: I'm no expert ... Hopefully someone who knows his or her way around a MIME type can chime in with suggestions. For now, all I can offer are these forum threads on the error message:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSR/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1987377&SiteID=37

http://dirk.net/2008/05/29/serving-hd-view-content-with-iis-7/

Alan Boyle (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:09 AM)

What is sobering here is the galaxy cluster is 300 million light years away. Light travels at 286k-miles/second - fast, very fast and very far. Dinosaurs were not even on this earth when the light we see of this galaxy cluster shined out from this galaxy cluster. And it shone out at the speed of light, traveling for the next 300 million years to our earth and the internet where we see it now. Its too much to comprehend - the distances involved, beyond it being just a dumb number with an exponential character to make it real, but numb to our senses. And even more amazing is that the remote galaxies are 40 times further out than this one. It becomes just a number game, but with real pretty light images, verging on the concept of GOD the creator. Unto dust we shall return, having arisen from dust - star dust.

cindy (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:57 AM)

The size of the observable universe is simply beyond human comprehension. As a reminder, a light-year is the distance light travels in one year @ 186,000 miles per second, nearly six trillion miles. This Hubble image is of a cluster 300 million light years away! As hopeful as I am for interstellar space travel, the ability to travel out there and come back to Earth in one's lifetime can only happen if a way is found to break the light speed limit, e.g. "warp speed". I'm thinking more and more that we will exhaust the natural resources of this planet and/or destroy ourselves before we figure that out and can leave for somewhere else. Come on, we haven't yet figured out how to consistently build Mars landers that land in one piece and don't have major problems when they get there. Nevertheless, we must continue to fund space research, at far higher levels than we have been. And we must figure out how to get more kids excited about science and keep them excited so they become scientists. We are losing the brain power to do this important work.

Derek, Irvine, CA (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 3:34 AM)

why can't there be a download link either to the nasa site or hosted here of a high res pic? I'm not inclined to download any pluggins just to look at a photo.

Great story and looks to be a great photo. But I don't see the need for a pluggin to look at a photo unless there are alterior motives behind it. I don't need more junkware to look at a photo.

rt2000 (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:42 AM)

It is truely amazing..the vastness of the cosmos. Carl Sagan was right in his wonder and teachings. It is fascinating what has been discovered and shown to the public this past decade. We have so many stars and planets in our own system, and yet billions of systems are there to wonder and see. Our curiosity dirves us to explore and reach farther into space, I hope this never stops. Maybe someday, we will be shown how to physically travel to places that are in our system and beyond. Keep dreaming and reaching..

wmr6413 Scottsdale, AZ (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:32 AM)

To put such physical research into perspective, we need to do some metaphysical research. The visible Universe has not existed forever, it did not create itself, it did not organize its own laws, and its very vastness pales into insignificance against the odds against life "evolving" naturalistically anywhere within its lifetime to date.

We'll reach the incredible wonders we see here after we stop thinking and acting as if there is no God and no purpose for the Universe that He created for US to inherit after He makes us like Himself.

John Wheeler, Houston, TX. (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 8:40 AM)

Awesome picture, showing the level of technology we now have. Sadly MSNBC cant seem to figure out how to display a high res image of it for everyone. You can only view MSNBC's proprietary version if you use Windows. Good one!

Mark Staller, Grove City Ohio (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 8:57 AM)

What a view! We are just another speck in the void.

Robert A. Jones, Colorado Springs, CO (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 9:08 AM)

Hubble ranks as one of science's greatest achievements. Not only for research, but more for it's power to inspire awe in the face of nature's greatest wonders. It has taken mankind on an extraordinary journey of exploration. I appreciate the decades of study and hard work of the people who bring us these images. Thanks!

Frank Maselli (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 9:37 AM)

Unless we discover a hyper drive or jump drive system we will never be able to leave our solar system...maybe take a thousand yrs or more but human civilization on this planet is unsustainable at present growth levels...

FG (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 9:44 AM)

If the speed of light is the absolute speed we will never get to another planet. All e can do is admire them from far away witch is beautiful anyway

Henry kahrs (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:29 AM)

It is encouraging to read these responses to the truly amazing spectacle Hubble has provided. So many see space as our next frontier. Yet, did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps these places are so far away because we aren't MEANT to go 'where no man has gone before?' We wonder if there is 'intelligent life' there. Poor, arrogant Western man. Everything that exists derives from intelligence - divine intelligence, in which we live, move, and have our being. The evolution of Man on Earth clearly indicates insufficiency to live above hedonism. Moreover, we talk of venturing (uninvited) into space. Just as with the destruction of African and Indian civilizations - and as well with our unending wars - do we really understand what beauty we might be disturbing or destroying? Have already destroyed? There is much that is beautiful in life on Earth, and in her inhabitants. Today, however, that beauty exists as a tip of an iceburg. Perhaps when our beauty, our essential good, becomes the iceberg, fully integrated in synergistic, life-affirming coexistence,flourishing and evident, perhaps then space travel will be within our reach. Should we attain that kind of spiritual/intellectual growth, who knows? We might not need spaceships to travel, nor external devices to communicate. Better yet, have we considered that WE might be a point of interest to that larger world? We might finally be 'sought after' by whatever is out there, after it becomes evident that 'Earthlings' just might be a species worth contacting.

Robin, Atlanta, Georgia (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:14 AM)

It is encouraging to read these responses to the truly amazing spectacle Hubble has provided. So many see space as our next frontier. Yet does it occur to us that perhaps these places are so far away because we aren't MEANT to go 'where no man has gone before?' We wonder if there is 'intelligent life' there. Poor, arrogant Western man. Everything that exists derives from intelligence - divine intelligence, in which we live, move, and have our being. The evolution of Man on Earth clearly indicates insufficiency (not inability) to live above hedonism. Moreover, we talk of venturing - uninvited - into space. Just as with the destruction of African and Indian civilizations - and as well with our unending wars - do we really understand what beauty we might be disturbing or destroying? Have already destroyed? Much is beautiful in life on Earth, and in her inhabitants. Today, however, that beauty exists as a tip of an iceberg. Perhaps when our beauty, our essential good, becomes the iceberg, fully manifested as synergistic, life-affirming coexistence, flourishing and evident, perhaps then space travel will be within our reach. Should we attain that kind of spiritual and intellectual growth, who knows? We might not need spaceships to travel, or external devices to communicate. Better yet, have we considered that WE might be a point of interest to that larger world? We might finally be 'sought after' by whatever is out there, when it becomes evident that 'Earthlings' just might be a species worth contacting.

Robin, Atlanta, Georgia (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:18 PM)

I just find it so amazing that we are a simple marble amongst millions or even trillions of other marbles. To know that the universe is never ending and that there are trillions of other galaxys' like ours, it just interests me greatly.

Chris M., Menomonee Falls, Wi (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:38 PM)

So impressive...... Wonderful, and such fantastic works of God....

Arlene (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:50 PM)

Isaiah 40:22) 22 There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth, the dwellers in which are as grasshoppers, the One who is stretching out the heavens just as a fine gauze, who spreads them out like a tent in which to dwell.
Our G_d like to dwell in a Tabernacle! A huge Tabernacle is our univers!

Dana, Bucharest, Romania (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 3:16 PM)

Thanks for the input to my first question - all. A few other questions that are rather distant (pun intended) in this whole discussion of these galaxies that Alan has shown us.

We can see a whole galaxy or even a group of galaxies through the Hubble telescope that are 300 million light years away. They seem to be very clear unless they are artist's renditions.

Can we put that same telescope to work for us in looking at the Alpha and Beta Centauri binary star system? If we can see 300 million light years, why not 4.22 light years? Instead of looking across town, we would be looking in the neighbor's window.

Would we be able to see what is revolving around that binary star system with the clarity of the COMA cluster?

If not, why not?

Delmar Fairchild, Barron, WI (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 4:17 PM)

DAVID MCDONALD-You should download Stellarium. It's an awesome program that shows your night sky in real time. It's really helpful if you want to find out the names of stars in your area.
-For other space lovers that like to look at far off galaxies, you should all visit GalaxyZoo.org. It's a really awesome site that lets you help scientist filter throught the hundreds of millions of galaxy photos that have been taken by numerous telescopes around the world. You get the see some really beautiful stuff that may have never been seen by human eyes before...I suggest everyone interested in space to become a member!

Larry C, Durant, OK (Sent Wednesday, June 11, 2008 5:40 PM)

Hi if you have not tried HD then you are missing out on very good photos of the cosmos, so get the HD and see the difference.

KATHLEEN MORLEY , SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. (Sent Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:12 PM)

"This is the coolest thing I seen. But how do you know its reality, it may be fake."

(sigh) So go buy your own telescope. See what's beyond the naked-eye Universe for yourself....

Unlike the Moon-conspiracy theorists that we can't yet sell tickets to, so they can personally know that humans can get there, you *can* personally see some of the things Hubble sees, just not in the same detail.

But then, there were once people who insisted that telescopes only produced optical illusions, anyway.

Frank Glover Rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, June 15, 2008 4:36 PM)

"Sounds like the definition of God, doesn't it yet folks that believe in God as Creator are riduculed for their intellectual foolishness."

I ridicule no one for their religious beliefs, but it *is* intellectually *lazy* to give up and fall back on divine explanations, just because you can't think of anything else.

Neither the Universe, nor God promised all answers would be easy or obvious.

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, June 15, 2008 4:43 PM)

"Can we put that same telescope to work for us in looking at the Alpha and Beta Centauri binary star system? If we can see 300 million light years, why not 4.22 light years? Instead of looking across town, we would be looking in the neighbor's window."

Alpha and Beta Centauri are two distinctly different stars. Indeed, Alpha Centauri is a triple stat system whose components should be referred to as Alpha Centauri A, B and C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Centauri

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Sunday, June 15, 2008 4:48 PM)

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