Starship Asterisk*

APOD Robot wrote:
In fact, the Hercules Cluster itself may be seen as the result of ongoing mergers of smaller galaxy clusters and is thought to be similar to young galaxy clusters in the much more distant, early Universe.

...extraordinary blue bar. There are practically no galaxies with bars similar to this...

metamorphmuses wrote:
Although 500 million years distant is relatively close in astronomical terms, when the light we are now seeing from the Hercules cluster left it, here on Earth the Cambrian period was at its height. That was when some of the most basal forms of our vertebrate ancestors were flourishing. Humbling and wonderful at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules%E2%80%93Corona_Borealis_Great_Wall wrote:

[img3="Ben & Jerry's Vermonster includes "a mere" 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, 4 ladles of hot fudge, 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1 chocolate fudge brownie, 10 scoops of walnuts, 2 scoops each of 4 toppings of your choice, and whipped cream. It contains 14,000 calories, and 500 grams of fat."]http://poshposh.com/Ben%20%26%20Jerry%2 ... onster.jpg[/img3]

<<The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall (Her–CrB GW) is an immense superstructure of galaxies that measures more than 10 billion light-years across. It is the largest and the most massive structure known in the observable universe. This huge structure was discovered in November 2013 by a mapping of gamma-ray bursts that occur in the distant universe. The astronomers used data from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall was also the first structure other than large quasar groups that held the title as largest known structure in the universe, since 1991.

The structure is a galaxy filament, or a huge group of galaxies assembled by gravity. It is about 10 billion light-years at its longest dimension, which is approximately 1/9 of the diameter of the observable universe, 7.2 billion light-years wide, but only 900 million light-years thick, and is the largest known structure in the universe. It is at redshift 1.6–2.1, corresponding to a distance of approximately 10 billion light-years away, and is located in the sky in the direction of the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis.

Prior to the discovery of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, the largest scale at which the universe showed evidence of hierarchical structure was on the scale of superclusters and filaments. At larger scales, around 250–300 million light-years, no more fractal structuring is apparent; this was called the "End of Greatness". The homogeneity exhibited at this scale and the apparent normal density of the universe (as determined by the cosmic microwave background) implied an upper homogeneity scale about 4 times as large (1 to 1.2 billion light years).

Such large structures like the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall may form part of the vast intergalactic cosmic web, an endless continuous sheet of galaxies and dark matter. Although this web was never directly observed, the relatively large sizes of structures in the nearby universe provides the possibility of the existence of this web. Such gigaparsec-scale structures, including the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, may be the intersections of smaller subfilaments within this vast structure, where there are overdensities of galaxies connecting other filaments within this vast web. If verified, the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall will be one of the first evidences of the existence of this web.>>

metamorphmuses wrote:Although 500 million years distant is relatively close in astronomical terms, when the light we are now seeing from the Hercules cluster left it, here on Earth the Cambrian period was at its height. That was when some of the most basal forms of our vertebrate ancestors were flourishing. Humbling and wonderful at the same time.

neufer wrote:

metamorphmuses wrote:
Although 500 million years distant is relatively close in astronomical terms, when the light we are now seeing from the Hercules cluster left it, here on Earth the Cambrian period was at its height. That was when some of the most basal forms of our vertebrate ancestors were flourishing. Humbling and wonderful at the same time.

With a redshift z ~ 0.036, the Hercules Cluster of Galaxies is most certainly relatively close
as compared against the (redshift z ~ 1) Hubble Extreme Deep Field set of galaxies.

One must note, however, that whenever Ben Bob & Jerry use the term "mere"
they are almost always being facetious
(; something I, personally, would never ever do).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules%E2%80%93Corona_Borealis_Great_Wall wrote:

[img3="Ben & Jerry's Vermonster includes "a mere" 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, 4 ladles of hot fudge, 3 chocolate chip cookies, 1 chocolate fudge brownie, 10 scoops of walnuts, 2 scoops each of 4 toppings of your choice, and whipped cream. It contains 14,000 calories, and 500 grams of fat."]http://poshposh.com/Ben%20%26%20Jerry%2 ... onster.jpg[/img3]

<<The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall (Her–CrB GW) is an immense superstructure of galaxies that measures more than 10 billion light-years across. It is the largest and the most massive structure known in the observable universe. This huge structure was discovered in November 2013 by a mapping of gamma-ray bursts that occur in the distant universe. The astronomers used data from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall was also the first structure other than large quasar groups that held the title as largest known structure in the universe, since 1991.

The structure is a galaxy filament, or a huge group of galaxies assembled by gravity. It is about 10 billion light-years at its longest dimension, which is approximately 1/9 of the diameter of the observable universe, 7.2 billion light-years wide, but only 900 million light-years thick, and is the largest known structure in the universe. It is at redshift 1.6–2.1, corresponding to a distance of approximately 10 billion light-years away, and is located in the sky in the direction of the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis.

Prior to the discovery of the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, the largest scale at which the universe showed evidence of hierarchical structure was on the scale of superclusters and filaments. At larger scales, around 250–300 million light-years, no more fractal structuring is apparent; this was called the "End of Greatness". The homogeneity exhibited at this scale and the apparent normal density of the universe (as determined by the cosmic microwave background) implied an upper homogeneity scale about 4 times as large (1 to 1.2 billion light years).

Such large structures like the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall may form part of the vast intergalactic cosmic web, an endless continuous sheet of galaxies and dark matter. Although this web was never directly observed, the relatively large sizes of structures in the nearby universe provides the possibility of the existence of this web. Such gigaparsec-scale structures, including the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall, may be the intersections of smaller subfilaments within this vast structure, where there are overdensities of galaxies connecting other filaments within this vast web. If verified, the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall will be one of the first evidences of the existence of this web.>>

Ann wrote: There are at least two more amazing galaxies in the Hercules cluster. One is IC 1182. This picture is strangely pink in color, but it does show the two spectacular blue jets - one long, straight, bright and full of clumps, one fainter and curved - emerging from this otherwise yellow galaxy.

Boomer12k wrote:
Hmmmmm......Making BIG ONES out of LITTLE ONES.......maybe one day, the whole Universe is ONE GINORMOUS GALAXY????

Probably not....

:---[===] *

markjaffemd wrote:I am a newbie, but how does one image galaxies 500 million light years distant when there are so many galaxies in front of it. For example, wouldn't the numerous stars and dust lying in front of the Hercules Cluster block our view of this cluster?