The Surprising Heat of Early Clusters

The Surprising Heat of Early Clusters

Astronomers using ALMA have detected the earliest hot galaxy cluster atmosphere ever observed, revealing a massive reservoir of superheated gas in the infant cluster SPT2349-56 just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. The gas is far hotter and more pressurised than current theories predicted for such a young system, forcing scientists to completely rethink how galaxy clusters evolved in the early universe. This discovery suggests that violent …

New Discovery Challenges Evolution of Galaxy Clusters

Peering back in time, around 12 billion years, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found the most distant and direct evidence of scorching gas in a forming galaxy cluster, SPT2349-56. The hot plasma, seen when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old, is far hotter and more pressurized than current theories predicted for such an early system.