Journey to The Antlia Galaxy Cluster: Abell S636 | NOIRLab

Journey to The Antlia Galaxy Cluster: Abell S636 | NOIRLab

FriendsofNASA.org: Happy New Year! | The Antlia Cluster (Abell S636) is a group of at least 230 galaxies located about 130 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Antlia (the Air Pump). It hosts a rich variety of galaxy types, including lenticular galaxies, irregular galaxies and ultra-compact dwarfs. The cluster is dominated by two massive elliptical galaxies—NGC 3268 (center) and NGC 3258 (lower right).

The final image was taken with the 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. It captures only a portion of the 230 of galaxies that so far have been found to make up the Antlia Cluster. DECam’s ultra-deep view showcases the variety of galaxies within and beyond the cluster in incredible detail.

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:
https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Dark Energy Camera (DECam)

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/decam/

Images and Videos: Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/NASA/Digitized Sky Survey 2/D. de Martin & N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)

Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Jan. 1, 2025

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