Galaxy Cluster - Basic Properties

Basic Properties

Galaxy clusters typically have the following properties.

  • They contain 50 to 1,000 galaxies, hot X-ray emitting gas and large amounts of dark matter. Details are described in the "Composition" section.
  • The distribution of these three components is approximately the same in the cluster.
  • They have total masses of 1014 to 1015 solar masses.
  • They typically have a diameter from 2 to 10 Mpc (see 1023 m for distance comparisons).
  • The spread of velocities for the individual galaxies is about 800–1000 km/s.

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