Description
A2163 is among the richest and most distant Abell clusters, presenting outstanding properties in different wavelength domains. X-ray observations have revealed a distorted gas morphology and strong features have been detected in the temperature map, suggesting that merging processes are important in this cluster. However, the merging scenario is not yet well-defined. We have undertaken a complementary optical analysis, aiming to understand the dynamics of the system, to constrain the merging scenario and to test its effect on the properties of galaxies. We present a detailed optical analysis of A2163 based on new multicolor wide-field imaging and medium-to-high resolution spectroscopy of several hundred galaxies.
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