The Dissection of Abell 2744: A Rich Cluster Growing Through Major and Minor Mergers

Understand

New Chandra X-ray data and extensive optical spectroscopy, obtained with AAOmega on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope, are used to study the complex merger taking place in the galaxy cluster Abell 2744.

• Combining our spectra with data from the literature provides a catalog of 1237 redshifts for extragalactic objects lying within 15' of the cluster center.
• From these, we confirm 343 cluster members projected within 3 Mpc of the cluster center.
• Combining positions and velocities, we identify two major substructures, corresponding to the remnants of two major subclusters.