Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2023 June 9 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan ([6]STScI) Explanation: [7]This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 from 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 some 3.5 billion light-years away toward the constellation Sculptor. [8]Dominated by dark matter, the mega-cluster warps and distorts the fabric of spacetime, [9]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, stretched and distorted into arcs. Of course [10]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 [11]2 minute video tour. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [12]< | [13]Archive | [14]Submissions | [15]Index | [16]Search | [17]Calendar | [18]RSS | [19]Education | [20]About APOD | [21]Discuss | [22]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [23]Robert Nemiroff ([24]MTU) & [25]Jerry Bonnell ([26]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [27]Specific rights apply. [28]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC & [32]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2306/abell2744_jwst.png 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/ 6. https://www.stsci.edu/ 7. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-107 8. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/a2744/ 9. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52957887826/ 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220319.html 11. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-107#section-id-3 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230608.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 16. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 21. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230609 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230610.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 26. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 28. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. http://www.mtu.edu/