Bridging Cities of Galaxies

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Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect Courtesy of ESA Planck Collaboration; optical image courtesy of STScI Digitized Sky Survey

Planck has discovered a bridge of hot gas that connects galaxy clusters Abell 399 (lower center) and Abell 401 (top left). The galaxy pair is located about a billion light-years from Earth, and the gas bridge extends approximately 10 million light-years between them.

The image shows the two galaxy clusters as seen at optical wavelengths with ground-based telescopes and through the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (in orange) with the Planck satellite.