Astronomers find record-breaking galaxy cluster

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Astronomers find record-breaking galaxy cluster

Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:42pm EDT

(Reuters) - A massive so-called galaxy cluster, one of the largest structures in the universe, has been discovered about 5.7 billion light years from Earth and credited with setting several important new cosmic records, U.S.-based researchers said on Wednesday.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a news release that observations of the cluster, which has shown a prodigious rate of star formation, may force astronomers to rethink how such colossal structures and galaxies that inhabit them evolve over time.

Known officially by an alphabet soup of numbers and letters as SPT-CLJ2344-4243, the cluster has been nicknamed "Phoenix," after the mythological bird that rose from the dead.

That's partly due to the constellation in which it lies. But Michael McDonald, a Hubble fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Phoenix was also a great way of thinking about the latest astronomical marvel.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/us-space-science-phoenix-idUSBRE87E1BO20120815

[greiner3]

1. "...5.7 billion light years from Earth..."

Is the same as 5.7 billions YEARS AGO. We are seeing this cluster just prior to the moment when OUR solar system formed, 5.7 billion light years from Earth, according to astrophysicists.

What type, extent and advancement of the civilizations permeating this cluster must be!

[tclambert]

2. Or maybe they all wiped themselves out . . .

by voting Republican.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. Carl Sagan running those numbers at the end of Cosmos is what got this little kid

into science.

[Diclotican]

5. Egalitarian Thug

Egalitarian Thug

Or at least, to wonder what's up there - and to be fascinate by anything related to the stars... I saw he series Cosmos when I was a child - I even begged about been able to be up, so I could se it, as it was airing rather late....

Diclotican

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. It was, literally, the first time I tripped to the sheer scale of these numbers.

I think PBS should re-run the entire series every few years. I have never since seen anything even close to the clarity and directness of his presentation of such complex material in a thoroughly understandable package.

Hawking's, A Brief History of Time, could have used Sagan's touch.

[longship]

7. PBS is remaking Cosmos even as I post this.

The host? Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Undoubtedly will be coming to a PBS station near you. (I can view two, via roof antenna -- only thing available here.)

That is, if the Republicans do not succeed in killing PBS.

Maybe we ought to do something about that. D'ya think?

Don't get me started about shutting down the telescopes on Keck Peak near Tucson.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. My heart sank when I read your subject line.

But Dr. deGrasse Tyson made it better. If anyone can live up to Carl Sagan's work, it is him. I'll have to catch it on line or wait for a DVD release. 99.9% of the time I don't miss television at all, but...

Yes, we'll have to agree to not even start talking about how backward we have become regarding science in general, I'm getting old and something might pop.

[Diclotican]

9. Egalitarian Thug

Egalitarian Thug

True - I haven't seen the series for a long time - I might as well put it on and se the series again.. And Carl Sagan was a great person to explain the vastness of space, on a scale where even a 8 year old child cold get a grasp on the vastness of space.. Even though th graphics of the series is little dated by the standards of today, and some of the knowledge is surpassed by new technology, who have given us a vastness of new information about space- the series is still one of the best to explain in a good way what is out there, even so a child can understand it - and be "star-struck" about the vastness of space a cold, winter night when the stars is like a blanked overhead... I'm still that child, when I se how amazing our little universe indeed are And I'm just seeing a little tiny part of it, nearest our own home.. I envy them, who can peek true the vastness - and time to this amazing galaxies and even to the beginning off it all..

Diclotican

[donquijoterocket]

10. I can

Think of two that came close. Bronowski's Ascent of Man and Burke's Connections both exhibited the qualities you cite.Burke's later series The Day the Universe Changed also partook of that clarity.All reasons not to give up on TV entirely, but to learn to exercise discipline in your viewing.

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. No, life is much better without TV. It's years between worthwhile programs and life's too short.

But, the two you names were good. Both BBC from the 70's.

[heaven05]

12. light year

each light year 5.88 trillion miles. we sure can see forever now. truly amazing. only thing that gives me hope is the hugeness of the universe.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. This thread needs pictures!

Record-breaking galaxy cluster may be most massive ever
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57493930/record-breaking-galaxy-cluster-may-be-most-massive-ever/

[elbloggoZY27]

13. Awe Struck!!

5.7 Billion Light years from Earth.


Very mind boggling and wonder what is really out there and how it all really happened. Guess that may be the really Great Question.

[kraj8995]

14. Spam deleted by LeftishBrit (MIR Team)

[Motown_Johnny]

15. Good thing, 'cause if Geologists found it there would be hell to pay!