This image represents a deep dataset of the Coma galaxy cluster obtained by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Researchers have used these data to study how the hot gas in the cluster behaves, as reported in our press release. One intriguing and important aspect to study is how much viscosity, or "stickiness," the hot gas demonstrates in these cosmic giants.
Galaxy clusters are comprised of individual galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter. The hot gas in Coma glows in X-ray light observed by Chandra. Seen as the purple and pink colors in this new composite image, the hot gas contains about six times more mass than all of the combined galaxies in the cluster. The galaxies appear as white in the optical part of the composite image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. (The unusual shape of the X-ray emission in the lower right is caused by the edges of the Chandra detectors being visible.)
Despite its abundance, the density of the multimillion-degree gas in Coma, which is permeated by a weak magnetic field, is so low that the particles do not interact with each other very often. Such a low-density, hot gas cannot be studied in a laboratory on Earth, and so scientists must rely on cosmic laboratories such as the one provided by the intergalactic gas in Coma.
The researchers used the Chandra data to probe whether the hot gas was smooth on the smallest scales they could detect. They found that it is not, suggesting that turbulence is present even on these relatively small scales and the viscosity is low. ...
Suppressed effective viscosity in the bulk intergalactic plasma ~ I. Zhuravleva et al
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
This image represents a deep dataset of the Coma galaxy cluster obtained by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Researchers have used these data to study how the hot gas in the cluster behaves, as reported in our press release. One intriguing and important aspect to study is how much viscosity, or "stickiness," the hot gas demonstrates in these cosmic giants.
Galaxy clusters are comprised of individual galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter. The hot gas in Coma glows in X-ray light observed by Chandra. Seen as the purple and pink colors in this new composite image, the hot gas contains about six times more mass than all of the combined galaxies in the cluster. The galaxies appear as white in the optical part of the composite image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. (The unusual shape of the X-ray emission in the lower right is caused by the edges of the Chandra detectors being visible.)
Despite its abundance, the density of the multimillion-degree gas in Coma, which is permeated by a weak magnetic field, is so low that the particles do not interact with each other very often. Such a low-density, hot gas cannot be studied in a laboratory on Earth, and so scientists must rely on cosmic laboratories such as the one provided by the intergalactic gas in Coma.
The researchers used the Chandra data to probe whether the hot gas was smooth on the smallest scales they could detect. They found that it is not, suggesting that turbulence is present even on these relatively small scales and the viscosity is low. ...
Suppressed effective viscosity in the bulk intergalactic plasma ~ I. Zhuravleva et al
