Astrophysicists used Chandra’s X-ray satellite to detect the most distant galaxy cluster ever observed. The galaxy is located about 11.1 billion light years from Earth. The cluster was detected by its diffuse X-ray emission, one of the defining features of a galaxy cluster.

The core of the cluster, named CLJ1001+0220, consists of eleven massive galaxies. Birth of stars takes place, in most of these galaxies, at an impressive rate that is equivalent to over 3,000 suns forming per year. This result suggests that galaxies in clusters may form their stars during shorter and more violent outbursts than their counterparts that live outside clusters.

Prof. Finoguenov, co-author of the relevant study, said that this new discovery will allow us to learn a lot about the formation of clusters and the galaxies they contain and scientists are going to be searching hard for other examples.

 

Publication: Wang et al. 2016

Source: Chandra