Subj : Daily APOD Report
To   : All
From : Alan Ianson
Date : Sat Jun 08 2024 00:10:58

                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2024 June 8

                        Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson
        (University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

   Explanation: This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view
   of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 recorded by the James Webb Space
   Telescope's NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744 itself
   appears to be a ponderous merger of three different massive galaxy
   clusters. It lies some 3.5 billion light-years away, toward the
   constellation Sculptor. Dominated by dark matter, the mega-cluster
   warps and distorts the fabric of spacetime, gravitationally lensing
   even more distant objects. Redder than the Pandora cluster galaxies
   many of the lensed sources are very distant galaxies in the early
   Universe, their lensed images stretched and distorted into arcs. Of
   course distinctive diffraction spikes mark foreground Milky Way stars.
   At the Pandora Cluster's estimated distance this cosmic box spans about
   6 million light-years. But don't panic. You can explore the tantalizing
   region in a 2 minute video tour.

                      Tomorrow's picture: what's that?
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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