March 3, 2012

Composite image showing the distribution of dark matter, galaxies, and hot gas in the core of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 520 (Image NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University))

The Hubble Space Telescope allowed scientists to observe what looks like a clump of dark matter which is what remains after a cosmic catastrophe that led to a merger of galaxy clusters. The result is called the Abell 520 cluster, an abnormal cosmic structure which has a chaotic nature exactly because it’s the result of a collision between galaxies.