Astronomers discover the oldest protocol of galaxy and its mythological queen

The blue color indicates the calculated range of the protocol, and the blue color indicates a higher density of galaxies in the protocol. The red objects in the zoom-in figures are the 12 galaxies found there. This figure shows a 24-minute square field of view along each side (corresponding to 198 million light-years along each side at a distance of 13.0 billion pixels). light years). Each zoom in digit represents 16 arc seconds along each side (corresponding to 2.2 million light-years). Credit: NAOJ / Harikane et al.

With the help of Subaru, Keck and Gemini telescopes, an international team of astronomers discovered a collection of 12 galaxies that existed already around 13.0 billion years ago. This is the oldest protocol we have ever found. One of the 12 galaxies is a giant object, called Himiko, which was discovered a decade ago by the Subaru telescope and which takes its name from a mythological queen of ancient Japan. This discovery suggests that large structures such as group protocols already existed when the Universe had only about 800 million years or 6% of its current age.

In today's world, clusters of galaxies can hold hundreds of members, but their shape is an important issue in astronomy. To understand the formation of clusters, astronomers are looking for possible spawners in the old universe. A protocluster is a dense system of tens of galaxies at the beginning of the Universe, forming a cluster.

Yuichi Harikane, a member of the JSPS at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and head of the astronomers team, explains: "A protocluster is a rare and special system extremely dense and hard to find . To overcome this problem, we used the Subaru telescope's wide field of view to map much of the sky and search for connection protocols. "

In the map of the universe conducted by the Subaru Telescope, the team discovered a protocol candidate, the z66OD, where galaxies are 15 times more concentrated than normal at this time. The team then made spectroscopic monitoring observations using the WM probe The Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope, and confirmed the 12 galaxies that existed 13.0 billion years ago. is the first known protocol to date.

It is interesting to note that one of the 12 galaxies of the z66OD was a giant object with a huge volume of gas, called Himiko, which had already been discovered by the Subaru telescope in 2009. "It is reasonable to find a projector near a massive object, such as Himiko. However, we are surprised to see that Himiko was located not at the center of the protocol, but 500 million light-years away from its horizon, "said Masami Ouchi, a member of the team at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. the University of Tokyo, who discovered Himiko in 2009. Ironically, the mythological queen Himiko would also have lived in an isolated place far from his people. Ouchi continues, "We still do not understand why Himiko is not centrally located. These results will be a key to understanding the relationship between clusters and massive galaxies. "

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This research will be published on September 30, 2019 in The astrophysical journal like Yuichi Harikane, et al. "SILVERRUSH. VIII. Spectroscopic identification of large scale early structures with protocols of more than 200 Mpc between z ~ 6-7: strong associations of dusty galaxies forming stars. "