Hyperion: Largest Known Galaxy Proto Supercluster
Explanation:
How did galaxies form in the early universe?
To help find out,
astronomers surveyed
a patch of dark night sky with the
Very Large Telescope array in
Chile
to find and count galaxies that formed when our universe was very young.
Analysis of the
distribution of some distant
galaxies
(
redshifts near 2.5)
found an enormous
conglomeration of galaxies
that spanned 300 million
light years and contained about 5,000 times the mass of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
Dubbed
Hyperion, it is currently the largest and most massive
proto-supercluster
yet discovered
in the early universe.
A proto-supercluster is a group of young galaxies that is gravitationally collapsing
to create a
supercluster,
which itself a group of several
galaxy clusters,
which itself is a group of hundreds of
galaxies,
which itself is a group of billions of
stars.
In the
featured visualization,
massive galaxies are depicted in white,
while regions containing a large amount of smaller galaxies are shaded blue.
Identifying and understanding such large groups of early galaxies contributes to
humanity's understanding of the
composition and evolution of the universe as a whole.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
