Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: An international team of astronomers have located a massive, hot young galaxy cluster nicknamed “El Gordo” by using a telescope in Chile.
The finding was announced at the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
El Gordo, which means “the fat one” in Spanish, has its official name as ACT-CL J0102-4915 and is located more than 7 billion light-years from Earth.
The monster galaxy cluster El Gordo has mass about 2 quadrillion times that of the sun and is the largest, hottest, and most energetic cluster ever seen in the distant universe.
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. They are formed as a result of smaller groups of galaxies merging together. The process depends on the amount of dark matter and dark energy in the universe at that time. Having a peep inside the clusters can shed light on the mysterious components of the cosmic world.
First Published: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 09:40