Galaxy Group and Cluster Astronomy at RIT
Spitzer,)HST,)GALEX,)&)Chandra)Image) 23 Green Bank 100M
Hershel 3.5M
Credit:)NRAO)
Credit:)Chicago)University) Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Sloan Digital 2.4M Sky Survey 2.5M Credit:) Hubblesite ) In Space On Earth
Astronomers at RIT want to learn about galaxy groups and clusters. They use a variety of ground- and space-based telescopes.
24 YOU ARE HERE
Milky Way galaxy Artist’s representation
Here’s where the sun lives! We are on the outskirts of the Milky Way. It takes the sun 200 million years to travel once around the galaxy.
Credit:)NASA/JPLJCaltech/R) 25 Sometimes galaxies run past each other or even combine!
ZOOM
Antennae Galaxies
This can jumpstart star formation and make irregularly shaped galaxies like the ones shown here.
26 Credit:)HubbleSite) Living as a group of galaxies, the Milky Way has neighbors: the larger Andromeda and the smaller Tr i a n g u l u m . The Milky Way s Home
The Local Group Andromeda Galaxy This is an artist’s interpretation. NGC185 Not drawn to scale.
NGC147 M32
Tr i a n g u l u m Galaxy
NGC205
Pegasus Milky Way Galaxy IC1613 Draco
Fornax
WLM Ursa Minor
Sculptor LEo I Leo II
Sextans NGC6822
SMC LMC Carina
Artist’s representation of the Local Group
Around each larger galaxy there are dozens of dwarf galaxies. It takes light 2.5 million years to get to Earth from Andromeda.
27 Hundreds, or even thousands, of galaxies can live together in a cluster.
A crowded neighborhood
Abell 1689 shown here has over 2000 galaxies living far, far away from Earth. Collisions can happen more often when it’s crowded!
28 Credit:)HubbleSite) Simulated here is a block of the universe 360 The Universe million light years across. Each zoom in shows the galaxies living in clusters and from afar groups in a giant web dominated by the mysterious “dark matter*”!
A light year is the distance it takes light to travel in one year—nearly 6 trillion miles!
Zoomed out ‘Cosmic Web’
Cluster
360 million Light years
Single galaxy
Credit:)BoylanJKolchin)et)al.)(2009)) 29