Right ascension 22 01 53.306 Redshift 0.10083 Type E | Declination −59° 56′ 43.373″ Distance 1.4 Gly Constellation Indus | |
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People also search for NGC 7216, NGC 7061, IC 5130 | ||
ESO 146-5 (ESO 146-IG 005) is the designation given to a group of interacting giant elliptical galaxies in the center of the Abell 3827 cluster. The group is well noted due to their strong gravitational lensing effect.
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Physical characteristics
This group of interacting galaxies was found 1.4 billion light years away in the center of Abell 3827. A huge halo of stars is surrounding their interacting nuclei. The group has immense gravity that holds the cluster together due to its mass. The group's unusual shape has led to the conclusion that each one of the nuclei were formed from multiple collisions of smaller galaxies, and now the nuclei are merging to form a single huge elliptical galaxy.
Mass
Observations from the Gemini South Telescope has shown that ESO 146-5 has gravitationally lensed two galaxies, a galaxy 2.7 billion light years away, and the other, 5.1 billion light years away. Using Einstein's theory of general relativity, the group was measured to be approximately 30 trillion solar masses, making it the most massive galaxy in the known universe.