"El Gordo," Largest Distant Galaxy Cluster Ever Seen, Spied by Astronomers in Chile

AUSTIN, Texas - The largest cluster of galaxies seen yet in the early universe, a giant that astronomers have dubbed "El Gordo," could one day reveal secrets about the invisible dark matter that fills the universe, researchers said.

El Gordo, which means "the fat one" in Spanish - is officially known as ACT-CL J0102-4915 and "is located more than 7 billion light-years from Earth, at a time when the universe was half its current age," study co-author John Patrick Hughes at Rutgers University told SPACE.com. The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

The monster galaxy cluster has mass about 2 quadrillion (that's 2 followed by 15 zeroes) times that of the sun, making it "the most massive known cluster in the distant universe."

A galaxy cluster behemoth

Galaxy clusters form through mergers of smaller groups of galaxies. These events depend on the amount of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, and thus could shed light on these enigmas. [See the El Gordo galaxy cluster]

Dark energy seems to make up 73 percent of all the mass and energy in the universe, and is driving the accelerating expansion of the universe. Unseen and as-yet-unidentified dark matter makes up about 23 percent of all the matter and energy in the universe — scientists know it exists because of the gravitational effects it has on galaxies. The regular matter that makes up humans, planets and stars constitutes only 4 percent of the universe.

El Gordo was discovered using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile. Its Spanish nickname is a nod to the Chilean connection.

The scientists detailed their findings today (Jan. 10) at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society here during a presentation that included a separate announcement of the discovery of the most distant galaxy cluster ever seen in the early universe.

El Gordo, a hot galaxy group

Gas in El Gordo can reach super-high temperatures of nearly 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million degrees Celsius), based on X-rays collected by Chandra and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

"This cluster is the most massive, the hottest, and gives off the most X-rays of any known cluster at this distance or beyond," said study lead author Felipe Menanteau of Rutgers University.

This heat, as well as the fact that galaxies within the cluster are concentrated in two distinct groups, suggests El Gordo is the site of a violent merger between two galaxy clusters.

"Galaxies are moving within the cluster at speeds of typically 3 million miles per hour," Hughes said.

Although a cluster of El Gordo's size and distance is extremely rare, it does fit within the standard Big Bang model of cosmology. This suggests the universe is composed predominantly of dark matter and dark energy, and began with a Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago.

"Gigantic galaxy clusters like this are just what we were aiming to find," Hughes said. "We want to see if we understand how these extreme objects form using the best models of cosmology that are currently available."

Future research can seek to model how dark matter separates from the gas in El Gordo, Hughes said. This could yield key details about dark matter's nature.

A paper describing these results has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

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Comments

[Panhermes]

10:38 AM on 02/03/2012

OMG! Reading this post a comment page has provided so much positive or renewed invigoration for our fellow beings here in the USA. Just reading through these comments demonstrates that some few of us actually attempt to 'think'. Have fun kiddies, speculate and ponder all you want. Fact is thinking is something very few are any darn good at. Challenge yourselves, try to imagine a time before time, a time before anything. Was there ever actually such an utter nothingness? It would be interesting to learn how and why the big bang theory would hold up from the vantage point of, say ACT-CL J012-4915. We, here on our planet with it's moon and accompanying solar system are still in our earliest stage of universe exploration. When intelligent exo-planet life is discovered, what then? Scientifically we may place a phone call, but visit it too distant even for a one way ticket. If 'they' are more highly evolved and decide to come to us through some wormhole time travel-let's hope they don't sneeze while here=wipe out! What'sa anti matter?

[Igor Purlantov]

01:43 PM on 02/01/2012

El Gordo is definitely the right name for that galaxy. It is amazing that scientists were able to find El Gordo.

-Igor Purlantov

[BlackbirdHighway]

07:59 AM on 01/15/2012

In contrast our own galaxy, The Milky Way, has a mass of about 1 trillion solar mass, so this new galaxy cluster is about 2000 times bigger.

[CaroleK1970]

07:42 PM on 01/14/2012

Well I am sure they came to that figure by scientifically counting all those stars right?

[g9]

02:47 AM on 01/13/2012

so the egg came before the chicken....or these galaxie clusters were formed about 6,999,994,000 years before god was invented...

[Coyote Blond]

11:28 PM on 01/17/2012

You'll never convince em....

[Fred997]

02:22 AM on 01/13/2012

It might help if the picture from the article was of the objects being discussed. The pic is that of a comet. Galaxy clusters are quite different in a telescope picture. Standard goof by HP writers.

[Captain Cosmic]

01:37 AM on 01/14/2012

Sorry Fred...not a comet but the X-ray image from Chandra. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/elgordo_photo.html
Does look a lot like coma & tail though. Run your mouse over the picture at the top of the article for a pop-up.
--Capt C.--

[job60]

02:05 AM on 01/13/2012

I see the silly thumpers are pushing the limits of ignorance tonight....

[SwiftJonathan]

01:46 AM on 01/13/2012

Whatever happened to the Earth being in the center of the universe? That idea seems to be accelerating away from us faster than even the expansion of the universe itself.

[LMPE]

09:21 PM on 01/12/2012

The Fat One. Now I'm thinking about "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Fat" (a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad").

[gutenmorgen]

06:55 PM on 01/12/2012

Scientific space must not be confused with the "space" in the expression "outer space". Scientific space is not a figment of our imagination but has very well known properties such as its warping due to the presence of mass in it. If that warping did not occur, then our Earth would not be gravitationally bound to the Sun, or our Moon gravitationally bound to Earth.
Ever since Einstein developed that concept of space it has become difficult to understand how space "expands". Is that really an intrinsic property of space, why and how? Thus far only the famous red-shift of hydrogen emission lines is possible evidence for the possible "expansion" of space, but how does that happen and why should it happen everywhere within our known universe? The red shift may just as well mean that there already was a huge scientific space at the time of the magical "big bang" and the equally magic expansion of the Universe is merely the moving away of galaxies etc. from one another in the theater of that huge scientific space (but not infinite; I do not accept either zero or infinite in the discussion of our universe because both are absurd in that context) which is, itself, an unchanging receptacle of our expanding universe. In other words, it already existed before the magical "big bang". How long? Long but not infinitely long.

[Al Schrader]

06:09 PM on 01/12/2012

There are things out there more incredible than we can even imagine...Alfred-

[gutenmorgen]

06:07 PM on 01/12/2012

When one traces the history of Earth back one reaches a time when Earth did not exist but here was matter, space-time, and energy available. The formation and "birth" of Earth is a well-established scientific theory that does not depend on mystery or magic.
The standard big-bang theory relies on mystery or else magic hence is not an acceptable scientific theory to me. It reminds me of a magician who shows me that his hat is empty and the next moment pulls a rabbit from it. Today it stands or falls with two never found but equally magic entities, "dark matter" and "dark energy". Dark horse petard I say.

[SwiftJonathan]

01:49 AM on 01/13/2012

What you think doesn't matter. What matters is only what the people think who actually understand this stuff.

[gutenmorgen]

10:06 AM on 01/13/2012

"People who understand this" have been utterly wrong many times in scientific history. Prime example: the "ether". Turned out to have been "wishful thinking" science. Or would you prefer "Earth is at the center of the Solar System"?
Your answer therefore tells me that I might be on the right track. Actually I am far from the only scientist who thinks that the "Big Bang Theory" is so much petard because it relies on an irrational and "mystical" date for the event.
And Jonathan, tell me how long the imaginary fuse had been burning before it reached the BB spot? Infinitely long? Or do you accept the dangerous concept of "time started at BB time"? The probable fact is that only "time as we know it" might have started then and even that has not been firmly proven. BB is full of black holes and you cannot hear the sucking sound.
All religions who have concluded that the BB proves the Creation of the Universe by God are the only ones who understand correctly that the scientific BB theory is a mythology. Unlike their mistaken myth bout Earth they never will have to abandon this one because it is a myth.

[zvibenyosef2030]

07:27 PM on 01/13/2012

There are several competing theories now about the origins of the Universe. One of the most fascinating is the theory that there might be an infinite number of parallel universes. This might explain the relative weakness of the force of gravity as compared with the other known physical forces. The explanation is that it leaks out of our 4 dimensional space into the higher level dimensions which contain the multiverse, as it is called. Since even the theoretical physicists cannot agree on where the truth lies, I think nobody really understands our physical universe, let alone the nature of consciousness. However I think that when we have a better understanding of consciousness, it will lead to a better understanding of the physical universe.

[nanjemoy]

11:32 AM on 01/12/2012

"The universe is about 13.7 billion years old."

Or like 6 thousand, depending on which books you read.

I really can't tell if the universe is 6 thousand years old or two and a quarter million times that much.

It doesn't feel 13.7 billion years old. Probably no more than, like, 11.82 billion. You get that feeling too? It feels much more like 11.82 billion, right?

Hey, did you know the AIG bailout was $85 Billion. That's, like a penny for every day the universe has existed. (Obviously, depending on what books you read :)

[RagdeSitum]

12:59 PM on 01/12/2012

Depending on which books you read? Their location in the library should give you a clue. Are you going to equate an answer given in a book from the astronomy section to one in the mythology section?

[LMPE]

09:22 PM on 01/12/2012

I always say that since Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, we should add that number to which ever year it is. Therefore, the current year is 4,500,002,012.

[RickCarter]

04:19 AM on 01/12/2012

I theorize that quantum free space can actually possess a very minute mass (but there is so much that much of the missing mass of the Universe is to be found in quantum free space), and quantum free space can also vary in density, especially around gravitational bodies. I also theorize that light is actually bent or refracted around stars due to the increasing density gradient of quantum free space around stars. I have also theorized that matter is composed of quantum bound energy and quantum bound space, and when matter is converted to quantum free energy, matter is also proportionally converted to quantum free space, and this is the basis for the spatial expansion (or inflation) of our Universe. I believe everything in our Universe emanates from the Universal Superparticle (including quantum free space), which exploded in a colossal matter / antimatter reaction in the course of the "Big Bang" due to an incomplete inversion of the Universal Superparticle. I also believe a great deal of the "missing mass" of our Universe (i.e., the "missing antimatter") was blown down into the bottom of a Universal Black Hole during the "Big Bang". I theorize that the outer fringes of our Universe which seem to be accelerating away from us are actually accelerating back together again under the old familiar force known as gravity, because the inertial expansion of our Universe has overtaken the spatial expansion of our Universe, and our Universe is actually coming back together again. - Rick Carter

[RickCarter]

04:52 AM on 01/12/2012

(PS - I want everyone to know that I told "The Truth" about these outside offensive totalitarian ETs covertly conspiring to steal and annex our extremely valuable celestial real estate, by covertly installing all three of these corrupt Abrahamic terminal religious belief systems into our world, in order to crash and explode our emerging human world in a final programmed cataclysm of global warfare fueled with WMDs, known as the Christian Apocalypse or World War III! These ETs are taking this covert approach at territorial conquest because there are Free Galaxy powers which reside elsewhere in our Milky Way galaxy, who currently stand in the way of overt military conquest on a stellar level. Unfortunately, I have been TOTALLY, ABSOLUTELY, AND FOREVER discredited by the Obama White House, who recently denied any and all U.S. government knowledge of ET / UFO activity around our world. As a result, I fear greatly that the Obama White House has effectively signed the death warrant for the entire human race !!!) - Rick Carter

[Lorindol]

05:33 AM on 01/12/2012

(raised eyebrow)

[Claudia L]

08:45 AM on 01/12/2012

Rick - try decaff. Everything's going to be OK. Yes, there's lots of planets in the Milky Way. Maybe even one like ours, as reported above on this page. Perhaps they seeded this planet. If we find a planet like ours, what would that do to religion? You know how dumb people are about the unknown. Don't be shakin' em up buddy.

All Science is Theory and all religion is belief. Not a real big safety net there.

[Claudia L]

08:37 AM on 01/12/2012

You mean we're breathing in instead of breathing out?

[onionboy]

02:00 AM on 01/12/2012

I think it's very rude to use the term "El Gordo".

How about "Gravitationally Challenged"

[RickCarter]

05:00 AM on 01/12/2012

("onionboy", you have a great future ahead of you, at least if you plan it right! (maybe a NASA internship? Who knows.)) - RC

[RickCarter]

05:04 AM on 01/12/2012

(Trust me, much of the Universe is just an "onion waiting to be peeled". You have the possibility of contributing SO MUCH!) - RC

[LMPE]

09:23 PM on 01/12/2012

Even in reference to Rush Limbaugh and Haley Barbour?