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X-ray telescope casts a sharper gaze on galaxy clusters

Data from the XRISM X-ray satellite provide unprecedented detail on how ionized plasma moves in massive galaxy clusters — a question with huge cosmological and astrophysical implications.
By
  1. Stefano Borgani

    1. Stefano Borgani is in the Department of Physics at the University of Trieste and INAF–Astronomical Observatory of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.

Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. Elucidating the internal dynamics of these exceptional structures is key to understanding how they formed, and thus to gaining insights into the matter and energy content of the wider Universe. In a paper in Nature, Audard et al.1 take a crucial step forwards with the most detailed observations yet of internal motions in the Centaurus cluster of galaxies, which lies approximately 36.8 megaparsecs (120 million light years) from Earth.

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Nature 638, 328-329 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00087-2

References

  1. XRISM Collaboration. Nature 638, 365–369 (2025).

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  2. Zwicky, F. Astrophys. J. 86, 217–246 (1937).

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  3. Vallés-Pérez, D., Planelles, S. & Quilis, V. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 504, 510–527 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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