Amas de galaxies Fornax
Image Credit:
European Southern Observatory
Named for the southern
constellation
toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the
Fornax
Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies.
About 62 million light-years away, it is almost 20 times more
distant than our neighboring
Andromeda Galaxy, and
only about 10 percent further than the better known and more
populated Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
Seen across this two degree wide field-of-view, almost every
yellowish splotch on the image is an elliptical galaxy in the
Fornax
cluster.
A standout barred spiral galaxy
NGC 1365
is visible on the lower right as a prominent Fornax cluster member.
The spectacular
image was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory.