List of Abell clusters

Abell 2744 galaxy cluster – Hubble Frontier Fields view (7 January 2014).[1]
Abell 383, the giant cluster of elliptical galaxies in the centre of this image, contains so great a mass of dark matter that its gravity bends the light from a background object into an arc, a phenomenon known as strong gravitational lensing.

The Abell catalogue is a catalogue of approximately 4,000 galaxy clusters with at least 30 members, almost complete to a redshift of z = 0.2. It was originally compiled by the American astronomer George O. Abell in 1958 using plates from POSS, and extended to the southern hemisphere by Abell, Corwin and Olowin in 1987. The name "Abell" is also commonly used as a designation for objects he compiled in a catalogue of 86 planetary nebulae in 1966. The proper designation for the galaxy clusters is ACO, as in "ACO 13", while the planetary-nebula designation is the single letter A, as in "A 39".

  1. ^ Clavin, Whitney; Jenkins, Ann; Villard, Ray (7 January 2014). "NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Team up to Probe Faraway Galaxies". NASA. Retrieved 8 January 2014.