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Largest ever survey of very distant galaxy clusters completed
July 01, 2009UC Riverside astronomer leads international team studying galaxy formation and evolution in early history of the universe
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - An international team of researchers led by a UC Riverside astronomer has completed the largest ever survey designed to find very distant clusters of galaxies.
Named the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey, "SpARCS" detects galaxy clusters using deep ground-based optical observations from the CTIO 4m and CFHT 3.6m telescopes, combined with Spitzer Space Telescope infrared observations.
In a universe which astronomers believe to be 13.7 billion years old, SpARCS is designed to find clusters, snapped as they appeared long ago in time, when the universe was 6 billion years old or younger.
Clusters of galaxies are rare regions of the universe consisting of hundreds of galaxies containing trillions of stars, plus hot gas and mysterious dark matter. Most of the mass in clusters is actually in the form of invisible dark matter which astronomers are convinced exists because of its influence on the orbits of the visible galaxies.
An example of one of the most massive clusters found in the SpARCS survey is shown in the accompanying image. Seen when the universe was a mere 4.8 billion years old, this is also one of the most distant clusters ever discovered. Many similar-color red cluster galaxies can be seen in the image (the green blobs are stars in our own galaxy, The Milky Way).
"We are looking at massive structures very early in the universe's history," said Gillian Wilson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy who leads the SpARCS project.
The SpARCS survey has discovered about 200 new cluster candidates.
"It is very exciting to have discovered such a large sample of these rare objects," Wilson said. "Although we are catching these clusters at early times, we can tell by their red colors that many of the galaxies we are seeing are already quite old. We will be following up this new sample for years to come, to better understand how clusters and their galaxies form and evolve in the early universe."
University of California - Riverside
In a universe which astronomers believe to be 13.7 billion years old, SpARCS is designed to find clusters, snapped as they appeared long ago in time, when the universe was 6 billion years old or younger.
Clusters of galaxies are rare regions of the universe consisting of hundreds of galaxies containing trillions of stars, plus hot gas and mysterious dark matter. Most of the mass in clusters is actually in the form of invisible dark matter which astronomers are convinced exists because of its influence on the orbits of the visible galaxies.
An example of one of the most massive clusters found in the SpARCS survey is shown in the accompanying image. Seen when the universe was a mere 4.8 billion years old, this is also one of the most distant clusters ever discovered. Many similar-color red cluster galaxies can be seen in the image (the green blobs are stars in our own galaxy, The Milky Way).
"We are looking at massive structures very early in the universe's history," said Gillian Wilson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy who leads the SpARCS project.
The SpARCS survey has discovered about 200 new cluster candidates.
"It is very exciting to have discovered such a large sample of these rare objects," Wilson said. "Although we are catching these clusters at early times, we can tell by their red colors that many of the galaxies we are seeing are already quite old. We will be following up this new sample for years to come, to better understand how clusters and their galaxies form and evolve in the early universe."
University of California - Riverside
The dark matter of the universe has a long lifetime
New research from the Niels Bohr Institute presents new information that adds another piece of knowledge to the jigsaw puzzle of the dark mystery of the universe - dark matter. The research has just been published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
'Cosmic telescopes' may have found infant galaxies
Using massive clusters of galaxies as "cosmic telescopes," a research team led by a Johns Hopkins University astronomer has found what may be infant galaxies born in the first billion years after the beginning of the universe.
ESA's XMM-Newton gains deep insights into the distant Universe
Using XMM-Newton, astronomers have obtained the world's deepest 'wide screen' X-ray image of the cosmos to date. Their observations show newly discovered clusters of galaxies and provide insights into the structure of the distant Universe"¦ Unlike grains of sand on a beach, matter is not uniformly spread throughout the Universe. Instead, it is concentrated into galaxies like our own which themselves congregate into clusters. These clusters are 'strung' throughout the Universe in a web-like structure. Astronomers have studied this large-scale structure of the nearby Universe but have lacked the instruments to extend the search to the large volumes of the distant Universe. Thanks to its
Most Distant Group of Galaxies Known in the Universe
New VLT Discovery Pushes Back the Beginnings Using the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), a team of astronomers from The Netherlands, Germany and the USA [1] have discovered the most distant group of galaxies ever seen, about 13.5 billion light-years away. It has taken the light now recorded by the VLT about nine-tenths of the age of the Universe to cover the huge distance. We therefore observe those galaxies as they were at a time when the Universe was only about 10% of its present age. The astronomers conclude that this group of early galaxies will develop into a rich cluster of galaxies, such as those seen in the nearby Universe. The newly discovered structure provides the best opportunity s
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