deep space


A LeAp of the ImAgInAtIon


Imagine studying galaxies almost seven billion light years away. That’s the day-to-day role of the astronomers who have discovered a gigantic assembly of galaxies, an almost unimaginable distance from Earth.


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THIS NEW DISCOVERY is the first time such a prominent galaxy structure has been observed in the distant universe, and was made possible through the combination of two of the world’s most powerful ground-based telescopes – the VIMOS instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and FOCAS on the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru Telescope. Te research team – which includes


Ben Maughan from the HH Wills Physics Laboratory at the University of Bristol, as well as members from universities and space observatories in the US, Germany and Japan – used the telescopes to obtain a three- dimensional view of the structure by measuring the distance from Earth to over 150 galaxies. Te scientists were able to identify dozens of


groups of galaxies surrounding a main galaxy cluster, with each typically ten – and some up to a thousand – times as massive as our own Milky Way galaxy.


“Tis is the first time that we have observed


such a rich and prominent structure in the distant universe,” says Masayuki Tanaka from the European Southern Observatory. “We can now move from demography to sociology and study how the properties of galaxies depend on their environment, at a time when the universe was only two thirds of its present age.” “In addition to the galaxies that map out


this huge structure the biggest clumps are filled with a gas so hot it glows in X-rays,” said Ben Maughan. “Tis glow is shown in green on the image. We used XMM-Newton, the European X-ray satellite, to study the X-ray glow from this structure. “Students from the University of Bristol


analysed the data for their final year project, and measured the temperature of the gas in each clump. Tese temperatures are the best way of determining the masses of the clumps and helped us to determine which pieces of this amazing structure are held together by the force of gravity.”


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THE VERY LARGE TELESCOPE Situated in Chile in South America, the Very Large Telescope is the flagship of European astronomy. Each of its four telescopes can see objects four billion times fainter than those seen with the naked eye. Take a look at the European Southern Observatory’s website for more – www.eso.org/public/news/ eso0941/


Pictured: The Milky Way from Earth. The Bristol team’s research looks at galaxies up to a thousand times larger than our own galaxy.


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