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Glossary term: Galaxy Cluster

Also known as Cluster of Galaxies

Description: A galaxy cluster is a physical group of galaxies that are gravitationally bound. Galaxy clusters can vary in size and concentration, containing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies. The Virgo Cluster, which is the nearest galaxy cluster is an example of a large cluster containing thousands of galaxies. In addition to galaxies, clusters also contain plasma and large amounts of dark matter.

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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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Loose grouping of galaxies with many yellow-ish elliptical galaxies and one priminent spiral galaxy

Fornax Galaxy Cluster

Caption: Galaxies can reside in groups, such as our own local group, or in clusters of galaxies. The Fornax Galaxy Cluster is one of the nearest such large groupings of galaxies. Visible in this image taken by the Very Large Telescope Survey Telescope VST (at the European Southern Observatory in Chile) are elliptical galaxies (without defined structures and in a yellow tint) but also spiral galaxies such as NGC 1365 towards the bottom right. This galaxy in particular is classified as a barred spiral galaxy due to its prominent and well-defined bar. The center of the Fornax Cluster is the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1399, visible as the largest galaxy on the left of the image.
Credit: ESO. Acknowledgement: Aniello Grado and Luca Limatola credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

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