fox1 on 23-Feb-2011 11:44:48 GMT about VII/4A/zwicky (Zwicky Clusters (Zwicky et al., 1961-68))
This annotation concerns
ZwCl 0458.5+0536
.
No cluster can obviously be found at that position in Zwicky's catalog of clusters of galaxies. The comments below come from an exchange between H. Andernach and Harold Corwin in February 2011:
(from H. Andernach) I recently stumbled over a literature mention of ZwCl 0459.6+0606 (in
1974MNRAS.166..235H
oskins), but the cluster is not visible in the DSS postage stamp shown by NED... supposedly a cluster of diameter of 59 arcmin (!). No distance class given... On the DSS2 image I downloaded (deeper than what Zwicky had !) I don't see any indication of a cluster, unless an extremely faint one... The nearest prominent galaxy is 2MASX J05012838+0601089 (no redshift according to NED...) and the nearest Abell cluster is 20 arcmin away to the W (A0529) at z = .11. The only object with redshift in NED within r=12 arcmin is at 1.2' from the Zw position: PKS 0459+060 at z=1.1, so did Zwicky see a cluster at z=1.1 ? Zwicky classified it as "medium distant". I checked for possible extended X-ray emission sources, but only the PKS QSO itself is known as X- and gamma-ray source (blazar).
Even Simbad doesn't have it... neither as ZwCl 0459.6+0606, nor ZwCl 1039 nor Cl Zwicky 1039 ... nor nothing corresponding in an appropriate coordinate search...
So what is ZwCl 0459.6+0606 ?? Zero references in NED...
(from H. Corwin)
ZwCl 0459.6+0606 is one of those sprawling, clumpy Zwicky "clusters" that is made up of at least two clusters found by others.
Abell 529
is in the western part, and
RX J0503.1+0608
is in the east. Looking at the map in CGCG, Zwicky's cluster stretches from 04 57 to 05 02 (1950) in RA and from +05 35 to +06 30 in Dec, with a somewhat irregular shape.
A NED search for other clusters within a degree of Zwicky's position turns up only
Abell 526
and
ZwCl 0458.5+0536
(in addition to the two above). A526 has the same redshift (0.085+-) as RXJ0503, so they may be in the foreground of A529. In that case, Zwicky's cluster falls apart.
Scanning over the area on DSS images, I see the two clusters A529 and RXJ0503, as well as many other scattered galaxies and groups, but no other obvious clusters.
All this probably doesn't help much, but Zwicky had his own inimitable way of defining clusters, based on his notion of the maximum allowable size of a gravitationally-bound unit (assumes gravitational waves move at the speed of light). Until another wacky genius with an interest in large-scale structure comes along, I'm afraid we're stuck with what Zwicky left us.
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