September 2, 1995
The constellations may be old, but the person celebrating beneath them is gloriously new by cosmic standards.
Hot Gas and Dark Matter
Birthday · September 2, 1995
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
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APOD published September 2, 1995. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Is the gravity of the above galaxies high enough to contain the glowing hot gas? Superposed on an optical picture of a group of galaxies is an image taken in X-ray light. The X-ray picture, taken by ROSAT, shows confined hot gas highlighted in false red color, and provides clear evidence that the gravity exerted in groups and clusters of galaxies exceeds all the individual component galaxies combined. The extra gravity is attributed to dark matter, the nature and abundance of which is the biggest mystery in astronomy today.