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Senin, 17 Mei 2010

Faraway galaxy cluster found

A group of U.S. astronomers says it has discovered the farthest cluster of galaxies ever found.

The cluster, which was created 2.8 billion years after the Big Bang, appears quite similar to its modern counterparts — which are much older — the researchers say.

"In this cluster we found a number of surprisingly ancient-looking galaxies," Ivelina Momcheva, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Observatories, said in a news release. "This cluster resembles modern-day clusters, which are nearly 10 billion years older."

"It is like we dug an archeological site in Rome and found pieces of modern Rome in amongst the ruins," said lead author Casey Papovich, assistant professor of astronomy at Texas A&M University.

The remote cluster, which the astronomers say is 15 billion light years from Earth today, is called CLG J02182-05102. It was identified using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and examined using an advanced spectrograph on the Carnegie Institution's Magellan/Baade 6.5 meter telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

The cluster contains about 60 galaxies and several of the large galaxies at its core hold 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way, the astronomers say.

The discovery was announced Wednesday on the Carnegie Institution for Science website

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/13/galaxy-cluster-found.html#ixzz0oAmKTR2k

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