statement<\/a> about the finding.<\/p>\n\u201cIn fact, at first I was skeptical about the signal as it was too strong to be real,\u201d he added. \u201cBut after months of verification, we\u2019ve confirmed this gas is at least five times hotter than predicted, and even hotter and more energetic than what we find in many present-day clusters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The astronomers\u2019 best theory is that the cluster somehow got a massive head start \u2014 previously unimaginable even to top thinkers \u2014 thanks to black holes lurking at its core.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tells us that something in the early universe, likely three recently discovered supermassive black holes in the cluster, were already pumping huge amounts of energy into the surroundings and shaping the young cluster,\u201d added coauthor and Dalhousie University professor Scott Chapman, \u201cmuch earlier and more strongly than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conventional theories suggest that galaxy clusters gain energy as the gases inside are pulled together and squeezed due to intensifying gravitational forces. The latest research, however, suggests there\u2019s more to how these clusters evolve \u2014 perhaps even a separate source beyond these gravitational forces.<\/p>\n
The team found the strange readings when they analyzed observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Atacama desert in Chile that examined a \u201cbaby\u201d galaxy cluster called SPT2349-56.<\/p>\n
The cluster, which dates back to around 12 billion years, is huge: its core alone measures around half a million light-years across. That\u2019s roughly the size of the halo that circles our own Milky Way galaxy, a vast region that contains globular clusters and older stars \u2014 yet it spawns stars more than 5,000 times faster.<\/p>\n
The astronomers are hoping to figure out what allowed it to get so incredibly hot, a source of energy that defies our current models. The research suggests galaxy clusters evolve in a far more explosive manner than previously thought, aided by gravitational interactions between multiple supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to figure out how the intense star formation, the active black holes and this overheated atmosphere interact, and what it tells us about how present galaxy clusters were built,\u201d Zhou explained in the statement. \u201cHow can all of this be happening at once in such a young, compact system?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding galaxy clusters is the key to understanding the biggest galaxies in the universe,\u201d Chapman said. \u201cThese massive galaxies mostly reside in clusters, and their evolution is heavily shaped by the very strong environment of the clusters as they form, including the intracluster medium.\u201d<\/p>\n
More on galaxy clusters: Scientists Intrigued by Bridge of Dark Matter Inside Huge Galaxy Cluster<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While peering into some of the oldest regions of the known universe \u2014 dating back to just 1.4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[84300,95426,90,136924,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-356189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-dalhousie-university","9":"tag-galaxy-cluster","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-scott-chapman","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}