ESA Space Science | Herschel | Planck | 2015 Mar 31
By combining observations of the distant Universe made with ESA’s Herschel and Planck space observatories, cosmologists have discovered what could be the precursors of the vast clusters of galaxies that we see today.
Galaxies like our Milky Way with its 100 billion stars are usually not found in isolation. In the Universe today, 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang, many are in dense clusters of tens, hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.
However, these clusters have not always existed, and a key question in modern cosmology is how such massive structures assembled in the early Universe.
Pinpointing when and how they formed should provide insight into the process of galaxy cluster evolution, including the role played by dark matter in shaping these cosmic metropolises.
Now, using the combined strengths of Herschel and Planck, astronomers have found objects in the distant Universe, seen at a time when it was only three billion years old, which could be precursors of the clusters seen around us today. ...
Galaxy Clusters Formed as 'Fireworks'
University of Arizona | 2015 Mar 31
More than 200 ancient galaxy clusters discovered
Imperial College London | 2015 Mar 31
Enigmatic high-redshift galaxies discovered by Planck and Herschel
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) | 2015 Mar 31
Planck intermediate results. XXVII. High-redshift infrared galaxy overdensity candidates
and lensed sources discovered by Planck and confirmed by Herschel-SPIRE - Planck Collaboration
- Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press 30 Mar 2015) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201424790
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1503.08773 > 30 Mar 2015