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Clusters grow through gravitational collapse and hierarchical merging of smaller halos.
supportedGalaxies are strongly clustered rather than randomly distributed. Clusters are laboratories for dark matter, plasma physics, galaxy environmental evolution, cosmology, and large-scale structure growth.
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Evidence first
Clusters grow through gravitational collapse and hierarchical merging of smaller halos.
supportedGalaxies are strongly clustered rather than randomly distributed.
supportedGalaxy redshifts and velocities reveal bound populations, X-ray emission maps hot gas, gravitational lensing maps total mass, and the motions of galaxies require far more mass than visible stars alone provide.