MACS J0416.1-2403 is a

cluster of galaxies A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-lar ...

at a

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in f ...

of z=0.397 with a mass 160 trillion times the

mass of the Sun The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass ...

inside . Its mass extends out to a radius of and was measured as 1.15 × 10¹⁵ solar masses. The system was discovered in images taken by the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

during the

Massive Cluster Survey The MAssive Cluster Survey (MACS) compiled and characterized a sample of very X-ray luminous (and thus, by inference, massive), distant clusters of galaxies. The sample comprises 124 spectroscopically confirmed clusters at 0.3 < z < 0.7. Candidate ...

, MACS. This cluster causes

gravitational lensing A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a galaxy cluster, cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This ...

of distant galaxies producing multiple images. Based on the distribution of the multiple image copies, scientists have been able to deduce and map the distribution of

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...

. The images, released in 2014, were used in the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) to help scientists peer back in time at the early Universe and to discover the distribution of dark matter.

Gallery

File:A cosmic kaleidoscope.jpg, MACS J0416.1-2403 contains a significant amount of dark matter, which leaves a detectable imprint in visible light by distorting the images of background galaxies. File:Faint Compact Galaxy in the Early Universe.jpg, Very massive cluster of galaxies, MACS0416.1-2403, located roughly 4 billion light-years away. File:Hubble Frontier Fields view of MACSJ0416.1–2403.jpg, Galaxy cluster MACS J0416.1–2403 is one of six being studied by the Hubble Frontier Fields programme.

References

Dark matter Galaxy clusters Eridanus (constellation) {{galaxy-cluster-stub