NASA image: Colliding galaxy clusters create a cosmic particle accelerator

[Buster's Uncle]

NASA image: Colliding galaxy clusters create a cosmic particle accelerator
The Mercury News
By Raechel Price | rprice@bayarea.com | January 5, 2017 at 2:56 pm



Composite image of Abell 3411 and Abell 3412, a pair of colliding galaxies about 2 billion light years away. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. van Weeren et al; Optical: NAOJ/Subaru; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT)



Check out this image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which describes what is happening this way:

Astronomers have discovered what happens when the eruption from a supermassive black hole is swept up by the collision and merger of two galaxy clusters. This composite image contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), radio emission from the GMRT (red), and optical data from Subaru (red, green, and blue) of the colliding galaxy clusters called Abell 3411 and Abell 3412. These and other telescopes were used to analyze how the combination of these two powerful phenomena can create an extraordinary cosmic particle accelerator.

Read More from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.


http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/05/nasa-image-colliding-galaxy-clusters-create-a-cosmic-particle-accelerator/