This “shock-heated” cluster of galaxies is 25 times hotter than the core of our sun

The galaxies of a feather come together and sometimes turn into hells. It might look like a special effect from a 1960s science fiction television show, but a new colorful image of a cluster of galaxies reveals a “cosmic furnace” and has caught the attention of European Space Agency scientists.

A cluster of galaxies is exactly what it sounds like: a collection that can contain thousands of galaxies. In this wild image, sub-clusters of galaxies (seen in blue-violet) collide with each other, raising the temperature of the gases around them in a process called “shock heating.”

Normally, these gases are about 2.7 times hotter than our sun’s core, but this cluster feels heat 25 times hotter than the sun’s core, ESA said in a statement Thursday.

A complex collective effort was required – from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory, Japan’s Subaru Telescope National Astronomical Observatory (which sees in optical infrared) and the Green Bank Telescope (which detects radio emissions) – to create the striking image.

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Colors highlight features within the cluster. Orange marks the individual galaxies. Gases come in green (hot and dense) and red (hot and thin). The spots where green turns red indicate where the brutal warming process is taking place.

“The international collaboration of scientists, tools and datasets has captured this exciting new aspect of building structures,” the Green Bank Observatory said in a statement.

We don’t have to worry about getting burned where we are. The galactic cluster, named HSC J023336-053022 (XLSSC 105), is located four billion light years from Earth. Whew.