Chandra Release - January 7, 2016

Visual Description: IDCS J1426.5+3508

The X-ray, optical, and infrared image of the galaxy cluster IDCS J1426.5+3508 showcases a large bright blue diffuse source speckled heavily with numerous red and purple dots, and with more red dots scattered around and beyond the source. These dots mostly represent individual galaxies within the cluster, each containing billions of stars and other celestial objects. Overall the image gives an impression of a large sparkling sapphire that's been greatly softened with tiny rubies and amethysts sprinkled across the area.   This multi-wavelength image shows IDCS J1426 in X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory colored in blue, visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in green, and infrared light from the Spitzer Space Telescope in red.
This rare galaxy cluster, located 10 billion light years from Earth, weighs almost 500 trillion Suns.  There is a region of bright X-ray emission in blue-white near the middle of the cluster, but not exactly at the center. The location of this "core" of gas suggests that the cluster has had a collision or interaction with another massive system of galaxies relatively recently, perhaps within about the last 500 million years.