Galaxy Cluster CL J1001+0220
Posted on 09/02/2016 8:39:40 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A new record for the most distant galaxy cluster has been set using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This galaxy cluster may have been caught right after birth, a brief, but important stage of evolution never seen before.
The galaxy cluster is called CL J1001+0220 (CL J1001 for short) and is located about 11.1 billion light years from Earth. The discovery of this object pushes back the formation time of galaxy clusters – the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity – by about 700 million years.
“This galaxy cluster isn’t just remarkable for its distance, it’s also going through an amazing growth spurt unlike any we’ve ever seen,” said Tao Wang of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) who led the study.
The core of CL J1001 contains eleven massive galaxies – nine of which are experiencing an impressive baby boom of stars. Specifically, stars are forming in the cluster’s core at a rate that is equivalent to over 3,000 Suns forming per year, a remarkably high value for a galaxy cluster, including those that are almost as distant, and therefore as young, as CL J1001.
The diffuse X-ray emission detected by Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton Observatory comes from a large amount of hot gas, one of the defining features of a true galaxy cluster.
“It appears that we have captured this galaxy cluster at a critical stage just as it has shifted from a loose collection of galaxies into a young, but fully formed galaxy cluster,” said co-author David Elbaz from CEA.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
An interesting scientific article for those tiring of politics
Why these numbers are astronomical!
At 11.1 billion light years away, I wonder how many of the stars in the galaxies imaged are still around.
There are some but they play a lot of shuffleboard.
Bet they all have dentures now.
If you alter the title to 'Record-Breaking Galaxy Cluster-F*** Discovered', it could be about Hillary's emails.
That galaxy cluster is a world record.
Or,”This old gas bag is older than He!!”.
Let’s just hope someone there didn’t initiate a vacuum energy collapse 11,099,999,999 years 364 days ago...
Some...
That’s no moon - it’s a galaxy cluster...
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