Monster Galaxy Cluster Found in Distant Universe (New)

A monstrously huge cluster of galaxies lurks 7 billion light-years away. The cluster weighs in around 800 trillion suns and holds hundreds of galaxies, making it the most massive galaxy cluster ever found at such a great distance.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4c2dab8de1c0.jpg[/atsimg]

Despite its tremendous bulk, the cluster was hidden until astronomers looked for the distortions it created in the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. This light was emitted when ions and electrons first combined to form atoms just after the Big Bang, and has been traveling through the rest of the matter in the universe for the last 13.7 billion years or so to reach telescopes on Earth. As the light passes through massive galaxy clusters, it can get distorted in a phenomenon called the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect.

Because the cluster is so far away, astronomers see it as it appeared 7 billion years ago, when the universe was half its current age and before the solar system even existed. Even then, the cluster was almost as massive as the nearby Coma Cluster of galaxies, which is one of the densest known. Since then, the cluster should have quadrupled in size, astronomers inferred, making it one of the most massive clusters in the universe.

Source: www.wired.com...

I love this stuff. Pretty amazing if you read the article and really think about what was written. 7.6 billion years ago? Just proves to me that there has to be SOMETHING/SOMEONE else out-there, in space. We can't be the only ones.

If we are, what a waste. Or, looking at the glass in a different way, what a wonder opportunity for us as a Race to refocus our purpose (being king here on Earth) and settling the Universe. Hey, if can shape it the way we want-so to speak. Maybe Star Trek is our future.

Makes me think how miniscule we Humans really are. Not even an atom on the Earth's butt..... We could be wiped out and not even be missed-ever. Most likely, that has already happened to other races that may have been out there already.

great find. i truly believe the universe is infinate in all dirrections and all dimensions, a vast limmetless array of changing forms on all scales forever, alive and thinking forever, for without perception and the ability to percieve then in my opinion nothing exists at all.

reply to post by anon72


theres an anomaly here.....YOU SAY :

"A monstrously huge cluster of galaxies lurks 7 billion light-years away."


then you say:

"This light was emitted when ions and electrons first combined to form atoms
just after the Big Bang, and has been traveling through the rest of the matter
in the universe for the last 13.7 billion years or so to reach telescopes on Earth"



the light to reach Earth has only been traveling for 7 billion years

do tell how we can see into the past,
when the composition of the material creating this light is 13.7 billion years old?

How are we seeing 13.7 billion year old light from a massive structure only 7 billion LY away?


does not compute



perhaps its only a theoretical model of what we suppose that the galaxy mega structure
looked like 13.7 billion years ago, but are seeing at the 7 billion year old timeplace

The light that is 13.7billion years old is the Cosmic Microwave Radiation which had the distortion in it from this massive galaxy cluster. They used the distortion in that background radiation to find it. The light the galaxy emits is only 7billion years old.

reply to post by anon72


Although this is probably great news to some, to me....the numbers are so big and space... so expansive that I simply can't even begin to comprehend what this means. I didn't even realize you can detect other universes. It's all too large for me to process.

I had this problem as a kid trying to understand Light Years. You can tell me over and over again what it means (that it's the distant and time light takes to travel etc) but my mind rejects it. It's words to me. Not a mental picture.

I try though. I often gaze up at a certain Stars....only to be told that I'm not actually seeing them today in the year 2010. I am really seeing them a million years ago before they burnt out and died!
Say what?????

And THIS is why I took up music instead!

reply to post by Human_Alien


Maybe knowing the miles of a light year will help. 1 light-year = 5,878,499,810,000 miles. hope it helps . Also, This galaxy cluster isn't another universe. Just another galaxy cluster like our Virgo Super Cluster in our same universe

Not in Another Universe

reply to post by Human_Alien

It's an error in the thread title. This cluster is very far away, but it is definitely in this universe.

Ok, very interesting and all, but....
As St Udio duly noted it does not compute. Also, besides the point he made what I don't understand is this:

For them to know if the light has been traveling for 7 or 13 billion years or any number for that matter, wouldn't they have to know how far the light has gone past us to know how long it's been traveling?

I guess another way to say it would be to see then end of the light. The end that is STILL traveling away from that galaxy.
Who is to say that light hasn't been traveling for 50 billion years?

Maybe what I'm trying to say will make sense to someone who can answer my question, or put it into better words then I.

Great post though, and nice pic too!
S&F

(Edit) Astynax is right, title should read something like: Monster Galaxy Cluster Found in Distant Part of Universe

reply to post by anon72

...cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. This light was emitted when ions and electrons first combined to form atoms just after the Big Bang, and has been traveling through the rest of the matter in the universe...

Wouldn't the 'oldest light in the universe' already be well beyond existing matter in the universe and not traveling thru it, unless the matter existed before the light began it's journey?

Originally posted by pryed -eyed-one
great find. i truly believe the universe is infinate in all dirrections and all dimensions, a vast limmetless array of changing forms on all scales forever, alive and thinking forever, for without perception and the ability to percieve then in my opinion nothing exists at all.

the universe is definitely FINITE or else it wouldn't be expanding. maybe the multiverse is infinite though, like an infinite mandelbrot set

Great story, definitley life out there somewhere!

Originally posted by new_here
reply to post by anon72

 

...cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. This light was emitted when ions and electrons first combined to form atoms just after the Big Bang, and has been traveling through the rest of the matter in the universe...

Wouldn't the 'oldest light in the universe' already be well beyond existing matter in the universe and not traveling thru it, unless the matter existed before the light began it's journey?

stars are made up of matter, therefore matter existed before the first stars formed

Absolutely amazing.

This universe hold so many wonders. I cant wait to find out how big some of those suns are.

I got to tell you. Another fine example of why I love it at ATS.

I had a 1st grade level of comprehension of this stuff (and thread). I knew by putting it on here would generate some great responses (well-hoping it would).

The info possessed by members here is just simple amazing.

I can't even really respond to any of your replies (except maybe HumanAlien's-I hear you and fell the same (felt).

I guess I am still at the: I love the pictures level.

Keep them replies and info coming.

Again, thank you.

The thing that blows most people's minds is this, those aren't stars in that picture, each of those red dots is an entire galaxy holding hundreds of thousands to millions of stars in each. That is just mind blowing

Originally posted by Electric Crown

Originally posted by new_here
reply to post by anon72

 

...cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. This light was emitted when ions and electrons first combined to form atoms just after the Big Bang, and has been traveling through the rest of the matter in the universe...

Wouldn't the 'oldest light in the universe' already be well beyond existing matter in the universe and not traveling thru it, unless the matter existed before the light began it's journey?

stars are made up of matter, therefore matter existed before the first stars formed

Yes, I know that stars are matter and existed b/f the first stars formed, but did this matter exist b/f the big bang? (rhetorical question... I know the answer is no!) My point is, how can light from the big bang (the genesis of all matter in the universe) possibly be passing the very matter that owes its existence to this same light? [ Isn't that putting the cart before the horse? Shouldn't the oldest light always meet up with darkness as it travels outwards in all direstions?(Please don't take this as argumentative-- I seek to understand, to 'wrap my brain around this!')

reply to post by new_here


Interesting thought-

However, I don't think that light photons are the driving force behind the expansion of the universe. In fact, I don't even know what is really.. But I know those galaxies are emitting photons in all directions, so while some are heading in the same direction as the expansion of the universe, others would have to come back towards Earth.

Hope that helped

reply to post by new_here

Shouldn't the oldest light always meet up with darkness as it travels outwards in all direstions? (Please don't take this as argumentative-- I seek to understand, to 'wrap my brain around this!)

Nothing wrong with being argumentative, not in my book anyway.

Your question is perfectly logical, but it comes from a mistaken way of looking at the expansion. What you're probably seeing in your mind is a 3D version of what happens when you drop a stone into a pond and watch the wavefront of the disturbance you have caused expand outward across the surface of the pond in an ever-expanding circle. You're seeing an expanding sphere instead of a circle, ballooning outward from a single point.

The expansion of space is not like that. It is metric, meaning every bit of space is expanding away from every other bit. It is, says Wikipedia, 'defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space.'

Here's how to visualize it. Imagine a bubble. That's the universe immediately after it emerges from the singularity that gave birth to it. As the bubble expands, we notice that more bubbles are forming on its surface and inside it, all expanding at the same time. These new bubbles, we soon see, have other bubbles forming on their surfaces and inside them, too. And so on, and so on. In the expansion of these bubbles, the original 'centre' is soon lost. Mathematically speaking, it could be anywhere--at the centre of any bubble you choose--and it will make no difference to the sums. What this means is that the universe does not have a centre. Or rather, every place in the cosmos is its centre. You are the centre of the universe. So am I.

Thus, the earliest light in the universe is the light that is farthest away from you. And me. And everybody else.

If the above isn't clear, ask more questions. I'll do my best to answer, as well as I know how.

Of course, it wouldn't look like that if you could see the universe from the outside, if you could see all of it at once. But the universe has no 'outside', so it is not possible for anyone to see it this way.

Awesome! Seems like something new is discovered everyday!

Yeah, I agree that is interesting info. Practically every humanbeing is fasinated by the universe, and that has probably to do with our deepest buried emotions.

The other day i watched a docu about sizes in the universe. Our sun was at a certain point a very big object....and then they moved to Canis Majoris.....a star as big as our ENTIRE solarsystem

www.youtube.com...