page_title: Galaxy cluster
hierarchical_section_title: Galaxy cluster
caption_attribution_description: English: This photo of the galaxy cluster ACO 3341 is from a collection of the first images obtained with VIMOS. ACO 3341 is located at a distance of almost 500 million light years (redshift z = 0.037), comparatively nearby in cosmological terms. It contains a large number of galaxies of different sizes and brightness that is bound together by gravity. The image is in the R-band. Exposure 300 seconds, image quality 0.5 arcsec FWHM; field 7 x 7 arcmin2; North is up and East is left.
context_page_description: Galaxy clusters are large collections of galaxies. They consist of hundreds of galaxies and galaxy groups, bound together by gravity. Galaxy clusters are much larger than galaxy groups, like our Local Group.
  Clusters of galaxies should not be confused with either star clusters, which are inside galaxies, or with globular clusters, which usually orbit galaxies.
  Notable galaxy clusters in the relatively nearby universe include the Virgo Cluster, Fornax Cluster, Hercules Cluster, and the Coma Cluster.
  Still larger than galaxy clusters are superclusters. A very large aggregation of galaxies known as the Great Attractor, dominated by the Norma Cluster, is massive enough to affect the local expansion of the universe.
  Notable galaxy clusters in the distant, high-redshift universe include SPT-CL J0546-5345, the most massive galaxy cluster ever found in the early universe.
context_section_description: Galaxy clusters are large collections of galaxies. They consist of hundreds of galaxies and galaxy groups, bound together by gravity. Galaxy clusters are much larger than galaxy groups, like our Local Group.
  Clusters of galaxies should not be confused with either star clusters, which are inside galaxies, or with globular clusters, which usually orbit galaxies.
  Notable galaxy clusters in the relatively nearby universe include the Virgo Cluster, Fornax Cluster, Hercules Cluster, and the Coma Cluster.
  Still larger than galaxy clusters are superclusters. A very large aggregation of galaxies known as the Great Attractor, dominated by the Norma Cluster, is massive enough to affect the local expansion of the universe (Hubble's law).
  Notable galaxy clusters in the distant, high-redshift universe include SPT-CL J0546-5345, the most massive galaxy cluster ever found in the early universe.
caption: Galaxy cluster ACO 3341.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2004:01:23 10:47:54", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4293", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2480", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2086"}