A team of astronomers from the Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and two other universities have recently discovered ahuge galactic supercluster of galaxies 4 billion light-years away.
Galaxies travel along the filaments of the cosmic web and form dense groups of tens and thousands of galaxies called superclusters. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a member of the “Laniakea” supercluster.
Named “Saraswati,” after the river ‘Saraswati’ and the Hindu goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, this galactic supercluster is by far one of the most massive large- scale structures ever discovered. Located in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the “Saraswati” supercluster of galaxies is as big as 600 million light-years and is thought to be equivalently heavy as 20 million billion mighty Suns!
Since light takes time to travel across space, so light from faraway galaxies help us take a peek back in time. Making it easy, light from a galaxy 10 million light-years away takes 10 million years to travel to us. So, observing it lets us see the galaxy as it was 10 million years back. With the “Sarawasti” supercluster being at a whooping 4 billion light-years away from us, observing this dense distribution of galaxies will help us get an idea of the universe as it was 4 billion years ago (those good ‘ol days when the universe was 10 billion years old).
This huge discovery will help unveil deeper mysteries of the sky which have been tantalizing astronomers and cosmologists for all these years and those to come.
Galaxies travel along the filaments of the cosmic web and form dense groups of tens and thousands of galaxies called superclusters. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a member of the “Laniakea” supercluster.
Named “Saraswati,” after the river ‘Saraswati’ and the Hindu goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, this galactic supercluster is by far one of the most massive large- scale structures ever discovered. Located in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the “Saraswati” supercluster of galaxies is as big as 600 million light-years and is thought to be equivalently heavy as 20 million billion mighty Suns!
Since light takes time to travel across space, so light from faraway galaxies help us take a peek back in time. Making it easy, light from a galaxy 10 million light-years away takes 10 million years to travel to us. So, observing it lets us see the galaxy as it was 10 million years back. With the “Sarawasti” supercluster being at a whooping 4 billion light-years away from us, observing this dense distribution of galaxies will help us get an idea of the universe as it was 4 billion years ago (those good ‘ol days when the universe was 10 billion years old).
This huge discovery will help unveil deeper mysteries of the sky which have been tantalizing astronomers and cosmologists for all these years and those to come.
Written by Janmejoy Sarkar || Source : http://www.iucaa.in/News.html
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