Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jul 27, 2006 23:27:04 GMT -6
Subaru Telescope Spots Largest Structure In The Universe
Hilo HI (SPX) Jul 28, 2006
A team of astronomers using the Subaru and Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea has discovered a giant, three-dimensional filament of galaxies extending across 200 million light-years of space.
The filament, which apparently formed only 2-billion years after the Big Bang, is the largest structure ever discovered. It is studded with more than 30 large concentrations of gas, each up to 10 times as massive as the Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers think the gas clouds are the progenitors of the most massive galaxies that exist in the present universe.
The finding is considered important, because it gives researchers new insight into the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Previously, astronomers expected the universe to look relatively smooth 2-billion years after the Big Bang.
"Something this large and this dense would have been rare in the early universe," said astronomer Ryosuke Yamauchi of Tohoku University in Japan. "The structure we discovered and others like it are probably the precursors of the largest structures we see today, which contain multiple clusters of galaxies."
The research group used the Subaru telescope to make a detailed study of a region of sky 12-billion light-years away known to have a large concentration of galaxies.
They used the Subaru Suprime-cam camera outfitted with special filters designed to be sensitive to the red-shifted light from galaxies at that distance. The results showed this concentration of galaxies is just a small portion of a much larger structure.
The newly found giant structure contains up to four times more galaxies than the universe's average for a space that large. The other known structures with such a high density are much smaller, measuring about 50-million light-years across.
Source: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Subaru_Telescope_Spots_Largest_Structure_In_The_Universe_999.html
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And that is probaby part of a larger object.