Looking for Perseus Cluster facts? You are at the right place. Before we start with our facts list, we have a few things to say and hopefully, you will agree with us on this. So, here is what we want to say…
When someone says that the chances of life showing up from outer space is unimaginably unlikely, it really makes us (and perhaps some of you) laugh. Why so? That’s because, we humans on Earth are not even capable of comprehending the extent of our Solar System properly, let alone the Milky Way and the rest of the universe.
Now, compared to the entire universe, our Milky Way is like a drop of water in all water bodies on our home orb taken together.
There are high possibilities that other forms of life exist somewhere in universe and we just don’t yet know, or perhaps some among us know, but keeps it hidden from others.
Yes, we are referring to Clementine Conspiracy. We will not really talk about Clementine Conspiracy here.
Coming back to the possibility of life somewhere else other than Earth, we need to take a look at the Perseus Cluster. There are literally hundreds of galaxies there in that cluster and there are all possibilities that life can exist somewhere out there in that cluster.
You don’t really need to be a crazy scientist to understand this. It is plain old-fashioned logic – if conditions were just right for life to evolve on Earth, similar conditions can exist elsewhere in universe. With literally hundreds of galaxies sitting in the Perseus Cluster, there may be a few places where life can exist.
Okay! We just deviated away from the actual topic – the Perseus Cluster. We are supposed to walk you through different facts about this cluster and not engage you in the debate of existence of life. So, let us learn 15 interesting Perseus Cluster facts. Are you ready?
Perseus Cluster Facts: 1-5
1. Perseus Cluster is one of the most massive objects in known and visible universe.
2. The Perseus Cluster which appears to be nothing more than a mere star field is actually a cluster of galaxies.
3. The cluster is immersed in a cloud of gas which is heated to several million degrees.
4. The cluster is a part of Perseus constellation and has a recession speed of 5,336 km/s.
5. According to NASA, the Perseus Cluster is composed of 150 galaxies.
Perseus Cluster Facts: 6-10
6. NASA also says that the cluster is actually a part of an even bigger structure known as the Pisces-Perseus supercluster which composed of well over 1000 galaxies.
7. If you come across the term Abell 426, it is the same as the Perseus Cluster. It is just that the cluster has been cataloged as Abell 426.
8. The most dominant galaxy of the Perseus Cluster is the NGC 1275 which is located at a distance of 250 million light years from Earth.
9. When viewed in X-Ray band, this galaxy cluster appears to be the brightest cluster in sky.
10. When viewed from through the foreground of stars in Milky Way, the superheated plasma or the gas cloud in which the cluster resides appears to have fuzzy blobs. Each of these blobs is a galaxy.
Perseus Cluster Facts: 11-15
11. The atmosphere of the cluster contains ions like S XV, Si XIV and Fe XXV.
12. The NGC 1275, which is the most dominant galaxy in the cluster accretes matter as other galaxies and gas fall into it.
13. This means that the NGC 1275 has an active galactic nucleus with the center being way more luminous than the normal luminosity of a galaxy.
14. This also means that the NGC 1275 hosts a supermassive black hole at its very center.
15. The active galactic nucleus of the NGC 1275 produces very deep notes or radio waves known as B♭. This note was observed by Chandra observations and had oscillation time period of 9.6 million years. This oscillation time period is 57 octaves below a piano’s middle keys.