Antlia_Cluster
Antlia Cluster
Galaxy cluster in the constellation Antlia
The Antlia Cluster (or Abell S0636)[4] is a cluster of galaxies located in the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster. The Antlia Cluster is the third-nearest to the Local Group after the Virgo Cluster and Fornax Cluster.[6] Antlia's distance from Earth is 40.5 megaparsecs (132.1 megalight-years) to 40.9 Mpc (133.4 Mly)[5] and can be viewed from Earth in the constellation Antlia.[5][7] The Antlia Cluster should not be confused with the Antlia Dwarf galaxy.[5]
Antlia is classified as a rare Bautz–Morgan type III cluster,[4][3] meaning it has no central dominant (cD) brightest cluster galaxy.[8] However, the cluster is dominated by two massive elliptical galaxies, NGC 3268 and NGC 3258, and contains a total of about 234 galaxies.[4][5] The cluster is very dense compared to other clusters such as Virgo and Fornax, thus containing early-type galaxies and a larger portion of dwarf ellipticals.[5][7][clarification needed] The cluster is split into two galaxy groups, the Northern subgroup gravitating around NGC 3268, and the Southern subgroup centered on NGC 3258.[5]
The cluster has an overall redshift of z = 0.0087, implying that the cluster is, like most objects in the Universe, receding from the Local Group.[4] Using the now-obsolete scientific satellite ASCA, X-ray observations show that the cluster is almost isothermal, with a mean temperature of kT ~ 2.0 keV.[4]