NASA’s Chandra Spots Champagne Cluster Formed by a Massive Galaxy Collision
Discovered on New Year’s Eve 2020, the Champagne Cluster is a striking pair of colliding galaxy clusters revealed through combined X-ray and optical observations. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows superheated gas stretched and distorted, exposing a massive cosmic collision hidden from visible light alone. Studied by UC Davis astronomers, the system offers a rare natural laboratory to explore how dark matter behaves during cluster mergers. Understanding such violent encounters could help unlock fundamental clues about the universe’s largest structures.
