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Galaxy clusters
Perseus Cluster
A long chain of galaxy clusters – one of the largest structures in our part of the universe.
Key figures
- Distance
- about 240 million light-years
- Galaxies
- Thousands
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Part of
- Perseus-Pisces Supercluster
Interesting facts
- The black hole in the galaxy NGC 1275 “sings”: it creates pressure waves in the gas – a note 57 octaves below middle C, far too low for any ear.
- In 2023 the Euclid space telescope photographed more than 1,000 galaxies of the cluster and, behind them, over 100,000 more distant galaxies.
The brightest cluster in X-rays
The Perseus Cluster is filled with so much hot gas that it is the brightest galaxy cluster in the X-ray sky. The gas is about 50 million degrees hot.
Where is it?
Perseus Cluster belongs to the “The cosmic web” level of the Cosmic Zoom (field of view about 600 million light-years). Galaxies are spread out like dewdrops on a gigantic spider's web: in clusters and long filaments, with vast voids in between. Here the whole Local Group is a single point of light.
Books on this topic
BookAstrophysics for People in a HurryNeil deGrasse TysonBookBlack HolesBrian Cox, Jeff ForshawBookCosmos: Explore the Wonders of the UniverseDKBookUniverseDKChildren's bookSpace EncyclopediaNational Geographic KidsBookBackyard Guide to the Night SkyAndrew Fazekas
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