'Pandora' galaxy cluster crash yields dark matter clues

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LONDON. June 23. KAINFORM A slow-motion cosmic "car crash" of immense proportions has come into sharp focus for astronomers.The Pandora cluster - so named because it comprises so many unusual phenomena - is a mess of four galaxy clusters that have collided over the course of 350 million years.

According to BBC News, the "crash investigation" should yield clues about the nature of dark matter.

A report to be published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society outlines the unique find.

Galaxy clusters are the largest structures we know of in the Universe, comprising hundreds of galaxies and trillions of stars - along with huge amounts of hot gas - and dark matter..

Very few galaxy cluster collisions have been caught in the act. Most notably, the Bullet Cluster made its name as the site of a collision between two clusters in a crash that should in time help unravel some of dark matter's secrets.

Richard Massey of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh said that to learn as much as is possible from these crash scenes, the collisions have to be captured at just the right time.

For full version go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13878171

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