Researchers explain mystery of 'banging' galaxy clusters
June 6, 2017
Two galaxy clusters in the process of merging created a layer of surprisingly hot gas between them that University of Colorado Boulder astronomers believe is from turbulence caused by banging into each other at supersonic speeds.
The two clusters, which are coming together to create the larger galaxy cluster Abell 115, are located some 2.4 billion light years away. The turbulent area of hot gas sandwiched between the two clusters, which CU Boulder Professor Jack Burns likened to a wake behind a motorboat, is about 300 million degrees F. That is roughly three times as hot as the two smaller cluster cores and 10 times hotter than the core of the sun, said Burns, lead study author.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-mystery-galaxy-clusters.html#jCp
