Mystery of cosmic 'blob' solved [View all]
Mystery of cosmic 'blob' solved
Astronomers believe they may have solved the mystery behind a huge, bright cloud of gas found 11.5 billion lightyears away.
Wed Sep 21, 2016
A computer illustration of a Lyman-alpha blob. The image has been coloured so that cold gas
appears red and hot gas appears white. Red clumps in the image represent smaller galaxies
surrounding two larger star-forming galaxies.
Credit: J.Geach/D.Narayanan/R.Crain
Astronomers have discovered the nature of a massive object spotted in the distant Universe known as a Lyman-alpha Blob (LAB).
These objects are massive clouds of hydrogen that emit ultraviolet light, but the story behind their formation has remained a mystery, until now. Observations have revealed two galaxies at the heart of one LAB that are rapidly forming stars and giving off immense light.
A team of astronomers studied SSA22-Lyman-alpha blob1, one of the largest LABs known, and found two galaxies at its centre that are forming stars at a rate over 100 times that of the Milky Way.
Additional observations showed that the galaxies are surrounded by lots of smaller galaxies that may be firing material into them, feeding the frenzied star formation. The team believe they are witnessing the formation of a massive galaxy cluster 11.5 billion lightyears away.
More:
http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/mystery-cosmic-blob-solved
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