This is a composite image of the most distant galaxy cluster yet detected. This image contains X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, optical data from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and optical and infrared data from the Digitized Sky Survey. This record-breaking object, known as JKCS041, is observed as it was when the Universe was just one quarter of its current age. X-rays from Chandra are displayed here as the diffuse blue region, while the individual galaxies in the cluster are seen in white in the VLT's optical data, embedded in the X-ray emission.
JKCS041 was originally detected in 2006 with infrared observations from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). The distance to the cluster was then determined from optical and infrared observations from UKIRT, the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope in Hawaii and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. However, scientists were not sure if it was a true galaxy cluster, rather than one that has been caught in the act of forming. The shape and extent of the X-ray emission in the Chandra data, however, provided the definitive evidence that showed that JKCS041 was, indeed, a galaxy cluster. The Chandra data also allowed scientists to rule out other possible explanations for the data, including a group of galaxies, or a filament of galaxies seen along the line of sight.
Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe. Scientists have calculated when they should start assembling in the early Universe, and JKCS041, at a distance of some 10.2 billion light years, is on the early edge of that epoch. Follow-on observations of JKCS041 will provide scientists with an opportunity to find important information about how the Universe evolved at this crucial stage.
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It looks to me like individual galaxies in the cluster and the cluster as a whole are gravitationally lensing objects farther away making rings around the galaxies and a large ring around the cluster defined by the xray image.
Posted by Richard L Blake on Friday, 11.27.09 @ 23:22pm
Dear Harry,
Thanks for your question. This image contains a mixture of objects: some foreground stars (in our galaxy), some foreground galaxies like the obvious spirals in the lower right part of the image and, of course, objects in the galaxy cluster itself. There also may be objects that are more distant than the galaxy cluster. The X-ray sources are mostly active galactic nuclei, or rapidly growing supermassive black holes.
CXC
Posted by CXC on Tuesday, 11.3.09 @ 11:41am
Dear Mark,
Thanks for your question. Please see:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/galaxy_clusters.html
for an explanation of why the gas in galaxy clusters is so hot and
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/perseus/
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/m84/
for an explanation of how the gas stays hot.
CXC
Posted by CXC on Tuesday, 11.3.09 @ 11:38am
Is every object visible in the photograph an individual galaxy, or are there some Milky Way objects that are in the way, between us and the cluster? For example, are the optically visible objects near-field while the x-ray objects, are they galaxies? Some objects appear in both, but most are in one or the other. I'm confused.
Posted by Harry on Thursday, 10.29.09 @ 11:02am
Why is the gas in this and other galaxy clusters so hot? What is the source's for keeping such large amounts of gas at such high temperatures?
Posted by Mark on Wednesday, 10.28.09 @ 14:49pm
Dear Roberto,
Thanks for your question. Dark matter should dominate the mass and gravity of this cluster and would have been a critical factor in the formation of this object.
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Wednesday, 10.28.09 @ 08:47am
Thanks Tom - we've fixed this error. It was meant to be 370 arcsec!
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:37pm
Dear Carl,
There is a good chance there are other planets like Earth in the galaxy
cluster, but it's much too far away to travel there.
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:35pm
Dear Navaneeth,
The redshift -or distance- of the galaxy cluster was estimated using several different methods, including a study of how the observed colors of galaxies depends on the distance to the galaxies. Full details are in the paper at
http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0812.1699 including a discussion of the measurement errors.
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:28pm
Thanks Elizabeth - we've done that.
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:25pm
Thanks Alan - we have now posted the redshift of 1.9. Note that the final
version of the paper is available at http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0812.1699
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:15pm
Thanks Mark for your comment. I don't have any extra information about that possible feature. One's eye can be easily fooled because random distributions of stars or galaxies often produce features that don't look random.
P. Edmonds, CXC
Posted by P. Edmonds on Tuesday, 10.27.09 @ 13:10pm
Chandra did it, every day we know more about the universe, it is enormous. How gravity function on the cluster due to the dark matter?
Posted by Roberto Gonzalez Davisonn on Monday, 10.26.09 @ 16:30pm
Congratulations on an excellent discovery.
I have a question.
Do you have any further information concerning the string a galaxies that seem to be forming a neat curve?
Best wishes
Posted by Mark Ballingotn on Monday, 10.26.09 @ 10:49am
As always, the astronomers at Chandra continue to provide and astonish the community with its discoveries. Providing data to better understand the creation of the universe and all her wonders.
Cheers to all at Chandra
Heidi-Ann Kennedy
Scientific Frontline
Posted by Heidi-Ann Kennedy on Sunday, 10.25.09 @ 11:02am
Sir, my congratulations on this discovery. I hope future observations will reveal more details that will help us in understanding the evolution of the universe. With best wishes
AK Sharma
Posted by AK Sharma on Sunday, 10.25.09 @ 08:55am
Scale 370 arcmin? Isn't that 6 degrees? At 10 billion light years away that would make the image 1 billion light years across. Does that seem right?
Posted by Tom on Sunday, 10.25.09 @ 08:34am
Exquisite use of a most valuable piece of equipment. Thank you for the picture and my appreciation goes out to all the team members that put their time and talents into all the research they are doing.
My fascination of the universe only grows with each and every discovery that you make. Thank you again for helping the apes continue their trek out of the tree.
Regards
Dan Pitney
Posted by Daniel R Pitney on Sunday, 10.25.09 @ 01:07am
It is very very beautiful.
Posted by Valter Rodrigues on Friday, 10.23.09 @ 07:34am
Do you think there is any other planet like earth around there, where we can live in future?
Posted by Carl Vertuin on Friday, 10.23.09 @ 02:05am
Good News. Very interesting to hear this story.
How can we measure the distance of these galaxy clusters? How much accuracy is there?
Posted by Navaneeth Krishnan S on Friday, 10.23.09 @ 00:53am
It would be nice to include the redshift of the cluster.
Posted by Elizabeth P Bozyan on Thursday, 10.22.09 @ 20:58pm
Today's technology is astounding the distance of this object and the fact we can see it at all is mind numbing, but extremely exciting as well.
Posted by David Stalker on Thursday, 10.22.09 @ 19:54pm
Very nice. It's mind-boggling to think that the light for this image had already been traveling for 6 billion years before the earth formed.
Posted by David Guidos on Thursday, 10.22.09 @ 18:16pm
Ahh, to be out there somewhere on the Voyager under the command of Captain Janeway. One can only imagine what beauty lies yonder. These fantastic images keep fueling the imagination. Cheers Peter
Posted by Peter on Thursday, 10.22.09 @ 16:14pm
So what's it's redshift? If the story is that it sets a redshift record tell the redshift. That's why to put out a press release so we don't have to phone to get the basics.
P. S. The distance cited is by the look-back time and maybe should be identified as such. This is only one version of the distance of a high-redshift object, though it's the most commonly used.
Posted by Alan MacRobert on Thursday, 10.22.09 @ 12:23pm