A Galaxy Cluster’s Wild Youth

Abell 2029 is a large galaxy cluster that contains more than 1,000 galaxies. It's one of the large clusters we know of and appears to be calm and relaxed. But Chandra x-ray observations reveal evidence of a massive merger event about 4 billion years ago. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/C. Watson et al.; Optical: PanSTARRS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk and P. Edmonds

The galaxy cluster Abell 2029 is sometimes described as “the most relaxed cluster in the Universe.” This moniker does not arise from some sort of mellow vibe, but rather because of how calm and undisturbed the superheated gas that pervades the cluster appears to be. But new Chandra X-ray observations of the massive cluster highlight a major merger 4 billion years ago that still shape it today.

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