Abell 2256 is a rich nearby
galaxy cluster in the
Abell catalogue
The Abell catalog of rich clusters of galaxies is an all-sky catalog of 4,073 rich galaxy clusters of nominal redshift ''z'' ≤ 0.2. This catalog supplements a revision of George O. Abell's original "Northern Survey" of 1958, wh ...
that exhibits a population of ~ 100 – 200 kpc long steep spectrum synchrotron filaments surrounding the cluster center with significant evidence of merger activity deduced by the presence of two separate X-ray peaks in the X-ray surface brightness distribution. One feature is a
Large Relic. The other striking feature in the cluster is a Long Tail whose morphology suggests it is either a one-sided jet or a twin tail structure. The bending of the tails takes place very near the galaxy core where one might expect little impact from the galaxy's motion through the
intergalactic medium, unless the parent galaxy has undergone extreme stripping.
See also
*
List of Abell clusters
*
Radio relics
Radio Relics are diffuse synchrotron radio sources found in the peripheral regions of galaxy clusters. As in the case of radio halos, they do not have any obvious galaxy counterpart, but their shapes are much more elongated and irregular compar ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abell cluster
2256
Ursa Minor (constellation)
Galaxy clusters