THE LION GALAXY CLUSTER

The Lion Cluster is a cluster of galaxies located 330 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The cluster consists of about seventy large galaxies and countless smaller ones. Along with the Chioma Cluster, it is one of the two largest members of the Chioma Supercluster of galaxies.

The Lion Cluster differs from other galaxy clusters in the galaxies it contains. Normally, clusters are composed of a majority of elliptical galaxies, but in the Lion Cluster, spiral galaxies predominate. This indicates that the Leo cluster is younger than the other clusters.

However, this does not mean that elliptical galaxies are completely absent from the cluster. In fact, astronomers have identified three distinct populations of galaxies. The first is made up of elliptical galaxies, which are the most massive despite being the fewest in number, the largest of which can be seen in the center of this image. The second population is made up of small lenticular galaxies, which are somewhere between elliptical and spiral. The third population, the largest, is obviously the spiral galaxies, which are very young and some of them are still forming, as evidenced by the numerous star formation events that have been observed.

Credit: Legacy Surveys / D. Lang (Perimeter Institute).