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What it is : The Antlia Cluster of coltsfoot ( also called Abell S636 )

Where it is:130 million easy - years distant in the constellation Antlia , also roll in the hay as the Air Pump

an image of a galaxy cluster

The Antlia Cluster (Abell S636) is a group of at least 230 galaxies located about 130 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump).

When it was partake : Jan. 1 , 2025

Why it ’s so special : stargazer used a telescope in Chile equipped with a highly sensitive television camera to capture the best - ever image of a cluster of coltsfoot near ourMilky agency .

The researchers pointed the Víctor M. Blanco 4 - meter Telescope ’s Dark Energy Camera ( DECam ) at the Virgo Cluster to help clear one of uranology ’s biggest mystery — the nature ofdark subject .

A photo of a spiral galaxy

Also uncommitted asa zoomable version , the image reveal NGC 3268 ( center ) and NGC 3258 ( lower right ) — both massive , lenticular Galax urceolata that have a central bulge like the Milky Way but no coiling arms , and where star organization has fizzled out , harmonize to NASA.One field suggeststhat the two galaxies are gradually merging , which may indicate that the Antlia Cluster is , or was , two separate clump .

However , what fascinates astronomers is the Antlia Cluster ’s deep diversity of galaxies . Technological advances have helped reveal not justlenticular galaxiesbut also irregular galaxy , dwarf coltsfoot , thick ellipticals and blue thick gnome . Even odder , little - discover galaxy type are suspected to be hiding within Antlia — many of which are retrieve to be fertile in dark matter .

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a deep field image of thousands of galaxies

— The wobble spiral galaxy that get Hubble 23 years to capture

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This strange substance appears to make up about 25 % of the universe . Dark matter may be made up of invisible particles that absorb , reflect or emit no luminousness or vim and as a issue is impossible for telescope and cameras to detect , according to NASA . However , its gravitative effect on visible subject can be realise everywhere astronomers look — especially within the catwalk of extragalactic nebula types in the Antlia Cluster .

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features part of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The DECam , built by the U.S. Department of Energy , is a 570 - megapixel camera in Cerro Tololo Inter - American Observatory in Chile , a Program of the National Science Foundation ’s National Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Lab .

For more high-flown space ikon , see out ourSpace Photo of the Week archive .

An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope. At the center of the MeerKAT image the region surrounding the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole blazes bright. Huge vertical filamentary structures echo those captured on a smaller scale by Webb in Sagittarius C’s blue-green hydrogen cloud.

An image of a spiral galaxy

An image of a galaxy

an illustration of Mars

A two-paneled image. On the left, a deep sky image showing many stars. On the right, a zoomed-in version showing a cluster of stars.

A photograph taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which shows wave-like patterns inside a Mars crater.

An illustration of an asteroid passing by Earth

a closeup of a meteorite in the snow

Three-dimensional rendering of an HIV virus

three prepackaged sandwiches

Tunnel view of Yosemite National Park.

A scuba diver descends down a deep ocean reef wall into the abyss.

Remains of the Heroon, a small temple built for the burial cluster of Philip II at the Museum of the Royal Tombs inside the Great Tumulus of Aigai (Aegae)