The Leo Cluster (

Abell Abell may refer to: People *Abell (surname) *George O. Abell, of the astronomical catalogues fame Places ;United States * Abell, Maryland, a location in St. Mary's County, Maryland * Abell, Baltimore, Abell, a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland ...

1367) is a

galaxy cluster A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. Clusters consist of galax ...

about 330 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s distant ( z = 0.022) in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Leo, with at least 70 major galaxies. The galaxy known as NGC 3842 is the brightest member of this cluster. Along with the

Coma Cluster The Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) is a large cluster of galaxies that contains over 1,000 identified galaxies. Along with the Leo Cluster (Abell 1367), it is one of the two major clusters comprising the Coma Supercluster. It is located in and tak ...

, it is one of the two major clusters comprising the

Coma Supercluster The Coma Supercluster (SCl 117) is a nearby supercluster of galaxies that includes the Coma Cluster (Abell 1656) and the Leo Cluster (Abell 1367). Located 300 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices, it is in the cen ...

, which in turn is part of the

CfA2 Great Wall The Great Wall (also called Coma Wall), sometimes specifically referred to as the CfA2 Great Wall, is an immense galaxy filament. It is one of the largest known superstructures in the observable universe. This structure was discovered c. 1989 b ...

, which is hundreds of millions light years long and is one of the largest known structures in the universe. A team of scientists decided to observe the Leo Cluster with the intention of creating a catalog of extended ionized gas (EIG) clouds. This data also led to the discovery of many star-forming parents (galaxies) within the cluster. These star-forming galaxies turned out to be very similar to those found in the neighboring Coma cluster. The EIGs in the Leo cluster, however, turned out to be longer in the Leo cluster than the Coma cluster. This likely means that the Leo cluster and its stars are probably younger than most comparable clusters in the universe and evolve at a different pace. Most dense galaxy clusters are composed mostly of elliptical galaxies. The Leo Cluster, however, mostly contains spiral galaxies, suggesting that it is much younger than other comparable clusters, such as the

. It is also home to one of the universe's largest known black holes, which lies in the center of NGC 3842. The black hole is 9.7 billion times more massive than the Sun. It can be very difficult for stars to form within the Leo Cluster. This is because infalling galaxies have a tendency to strip gas away from other stars that are attempting to form. This has led to the creation of a "hot zone" where stars are unable to maintain their gas long enough to properly form. There appears to be a number of subpopulations within the Leo Cluster. The first consists of elliptical galaxies that seem to be roughly as old as the universe. The second subpopulation contains red-sequence lenticular (lens shaped) galaxies whose ages are directly tied to their mass. The third and final subpopulation is of galaxies where star formation is still taking place, and are morphologically distributed.

Gallery

File:NGC 3837-3851 legacy dr10.jpg, Legacy surveys image of the brightest galaxy in the Leo Cluster ( NGC 3842 center), as well as surrounding galaxies File:NGC 3860 legacy dr10.jpg, The NGC 3860 + NGC 3860B pair in the Leo Cluster File:NGC 3816 legacy dr10.jpg, NGC 3816, which is located in the outskirts of the Leo Cluster File:3 Quasars around NGC3842 in Abell1367.jpg,

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image of the Leo Cluster

References

External links

The Coma Supercluster
with images of A1367
Abell 1367 - The Leo Galaxy Cluster
*http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/03/leo_cluster_a_buzzing_hive_of_galaxies.html *http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/column/small-wonders/small-wonders-leo-r486 {{galaxy-cluster-stub 1367 Coma Supercluster Great Wall filament Abell richness class 2 Galaxy clusters Leo (constellation)

Gallery

See also

References

External links