Chandra :: Galaxy Clusters and Dark Energy A galaxy cluster is comprised on hundreds of galaxies embedded in a cloud of extremely hot gas and dark matter. Dark matter, an invisible and unknown type of material, is postulated to hold clusters together. X-ray observations have the unique ability to determine the ratio of the mass of the hot gas and the mass of the dark matter in a cluster. The observed values of the gas fraction depend on the assumed distance to the cluster. in Public bookmarkswith cloudclustersdark_energydark_mattergalaxiesinvisiblex-ray