Animation of Cluster Collision
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This animation shows an artist's representation of the huge collision in
the bullet cluster. Hot gas, containing most of the normal matter in the
cluster, is shown in red and dark matter is in blue. During the
collision the hot gas in each cluster is slowed and distorted by a drag
force, similar to air resistance. A bullet-shaped cloud of gas forms in
one of the clusters. In contrast, the dark matter is not slowed by the
impact, because it does not interact directly with itself or the gas
except through gravity, and separates from the normal matter. The animation ends by dissolving into an image showing the hot
gas seen with Chandra (pink) and the cluster mass as inferred by
gravitational lensing (blue), which is mostly dark matter.
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[Runtime: 0:15]
(Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss)