Galaxies typically don’t shine alone. Instead, like our Milky Way, they often are members of galaxy clusters, the largest bound objects in the universe. By studying the formation and evolution of those clusters, cosmologists hope to test their models and learn about the nature of dark matter and dark energy (see the article by Josh Frieman, Physics Today, April 2014, page 28, and the news story in this issue, page 18). Now, by combining data obtained from the European Space Agency’s Planck and Herschel observatories, cosmologists may have caught a number of galaxy clusters in the act of forming. Planck, celebrated for its exquisite maps of the cosmic microwave background, sees the entire sky, but with relatively poor resolution. Still, the satellite was able to spot about 230 highly redshifted, bright sources that appeared to be from an epoch when the universe was less than 4...
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1 June 2015
June 01 2015
Citation
Steven K. Blau; Galaxy clusters in formation. Physics Today 1 June 2015; 68 (6): 20. https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2807
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