THE PERSEUS CLUSTER, AS SEEN THROUGH HUBBLE’S EYES

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning image of a portion of the Perseus cluster, which is made up of thousands of galaxies.

The Perseus cluster is approximately 240 million light-years from Earth and 11 million light-years across.

It is one of the most massive objects in the observable universe, containing over 1,000 galaxies immersed in a vast cloud of gas. It is also known as Abell 426.

“Perseus is an important figure in Greek mythology, famous for killing Medusa the Gorgon and being sentenced to have living snakes instead of hair,” Hubble astronomers explained.

“Given Perseus’ impressive credentials, it seems fitting that the galaxy cluster of the same name is one of the largest objects in the known universe, consisting of thousands of galaxies, only a few of which are visible in this image,” the experts continue.

The new Hubble image shows two massive members of the cluster: 2MASX J03193743 + 4137580 and UGC 2665, which are lenticular galaxies and spiral galaxies, respectively.