Small Cluster

Often galaxies huddle together in a small group or “cluster”, gravitationally bound by their dark matter halo. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, for example, are the two dominant galaxies in the Local Group, which also contains several dozen smaller galaxies such as for example the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds.

The image shows such a group in EAGLE, in which a long tidal tail of gas connect two galaxies.

Such tidal features are often seen in galaxies that are close together, for example in NGC 3628.

The movie allows you to examine the three dimensional structure of this galaxy group in EAGLE, by flying around its galaxies. The view switches between dark matter (coloured blue, red, and yellow with increasing density of dark matter), gas (coloured blue, green, red with increasing temperature), stars and high density gas, and the very dense, star forming gas.