El Gordo (lit. ''The Fat One'') (ACT-CL J0102-4915 or SPT-CL J0102-4915) is the largest distant
galaxy cluster
A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-lar ...
observed at its distance or beyond, as of 2011. As of 2014, it still holds the record for being the largest distant galaxy cluster to have been discovered with a mass of three quadrillion
sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
s.
It was found by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...
,
Atacama Cosmology Telescope
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a cosmological millimeter-wave telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile. ACT makes high-sensitivity, arcminute resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in or ...
—funded by
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
, and
European Southern Observatory's
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...
.
This galaxy cluster, officially named as, 'ACT-CL J0102-4915', has been given a 'nickname' by the researchers as 'El Gordo', which stands for "the Fat One" or "the Big One" in
Spanish
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* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. It is located more than 7 billion
light-years from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
.
Findings and results on 'El Gordo' were announced at the 219th meeting of
American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.
El Gordo and ΛCDM
This interacting cluster presents problems for the conventional
Lambda-CDM model
The ΛCDM (Lambda cold dark matter) or Lambda-CDM model is a parameterization of the Big Bang cosmological model in which the universe contains three major components: first, a cosmological constant denoted by Lambda (Greek Λ) associated with ...
of cosmology because it is hard to reconcile ΛCDM's model of galaxy formation with the combination of how early El Gordo is observed in cosmic history, its large mass, and its high collision velocity.
Observations
Findings from the European Southern Observatory's
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m acro ...
and the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...
show that El Gordo is composed of two separate
galaxy subclusters, colliding at several million kilometers per hour. These observations (using X-ray data and other characteristics) suggest that El Gordo most probably formed in the same manner as the
Bullet Cluster (which is located 4 billion light-years from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
).
Gallery
File:A gargantuan collision ACT-CL J0102-4915.jpg, Galaxy cluster CT-CL J0102-4915 contains the mass of a staggering three million billion suns.
File:Hubble weighs “the fat one”.jpg, Hubble image of ACT-CL J0102-4915
See also
*
List of galaxy groups and clusters
This article lists some galaxy groups and galaxy clusters.
Defining the limits of galaxy clusters is imprecise as many clusters are still forming. In particular, clusters close to the Milky Way tend to be classified as galaxy clusters even whe ...
*
RCS2 J2327, another galaxy cluster being the second-most-massive galaxy cluster at a record of two quadrillion, or two million billion, suns.
References
External links
El Gordo Galaxy ClusterEl Gordo (ACT-CL J0102-4915): NASA's Chandra Finds Largest Galaxy Cluster in Early Universe
{{DEFAULTSORT:El Gordo, Fat galaxy
Galaxy clusters
2012 in science
Phoenix (constellation)
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