Five billion light-years away, the giant object 3C 295 is a prodigious source of energy at radio wavelengths. Bright knots of X-ray emissions are also seen in recent studies. The X-ray and radio emissions are believed to be the result of an explosive event triggered when too much material flowed into a supermassive black hole at the heart of the giant cluster. Additionally, there is an extensive cloud of 50 million degree gas surrounding 3C 295. Embedded in the cloud is a cluster of about 100 galaxies. About two million light-years across, the X-ray hot cloud itself contains enough material to create another 1,000 galaxies or so making the cluster and cloud among the most massive objects in the Universe. However, X-ray data indicate that there is still not enough observed mass to hold the cloud and cluster together gravitationally, suggesting the presence of large amounts of dark matter. Situated in the constellation Bootes, it is rushing towards the border of the known universe at over a third the speed of light.

3C295: (C1 1409+524), Chandra, courtesy NASA