
| An X-ray picture
(false color) of the Abell 2104 cluster of galaxies taken with NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory overlaid on an optical image taken with
Carnegie Observatories' 6.5-meter Walter Baade telescope in Las Campanas,
Chile. The Chandra image reveals X-ray emissions produced by both
hot gas (the blue area near the center of the image) and by accretion
of dust and gas onto supermassive black holes (the smaller blue patches
on the outskirts of the image). The number of active, supermassive
black holes found in this cluster is six times the amount found using
other techniques.The finding suggests that active black holes are
much more common in clusters of galaxies than previously believed.
(Image courtesy NASA and the Carnegie Observatories.) |
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