Huge extragalactic structure discovered in space

The researchers were able to see the zone of avoidance.

The Earth isn’t flat – but it is Milky Way. The majority of stars and planets are located in the Milky Way at the same levelas with many other disk-shaped galaxies.

Moreover a land at this level. This means that we can look relatively well up and down in space. But if we point our telescopes at the edge of the disk, we hardly see anything. Many soil In the Milky Way it prevents light from passing through.

For this reason, space galaxies cannot be seen from Earth in 10-20% of the sky. This was the area Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) Baptized in German: zone of avoidance. Astronomers used to stay away from there because the low light meant that hardly any data about the galaxies in this region could be collected.

But now one team has been able to see the ZOA area. What they found is huge. The results were in study chest. Their review (peer review) is still pending.

groups of 58 galaxies

Researchers call it a massive extragalactic structure. It is a cluster containing 58 galaxies. has the name VVVGCl-B J181435-381432.

The mass can be found with vista. An infrared telescope in Chile scans the equator of the Milky Way, ZOA, for infrared light. While dust in the Milky Way blocks visible light, infrared light can reach Earth. This enabled them to identify an area in the ZOA that indicated something big.

Then the tool was applied to this area Flamingos -2 Oriented, which is also found in Chile. The near-infrared instrument can be used to measure the distance and velocity of objects in space. This provided new data for about 5 galaxies 3 billion light years away from the earth.

More investigations are needed

Early on, researchers suspected that the five galaxies were part of a much larger group. With the knowledge gained so far, they once again requested the use of telescopes to examine the spectra of galaxies. This would either confirm or refute the assumptions.

The results finally confirmed the research team. The cluster is believed to contain 58 galaxies. However, it was not yet possible to accurately determine its mass and contents. There is more Spectral investigations it is necessary.

The real sensation is not the huge mass, but rather that it was detected in the ZOA. Knowing the whole neighborhood of the Milky Way is important for space exploration. This goes a long way in understanding how the Milky Way was formed and why it is where it is.

great attraction

It could also be a crucial step in unraveling the mystery of the Great Attractor. This giant galaxy around 150 to 250 million light-years of Earth and has a mass of 10 quadrillion suns.

Something in the Great Attractor is holding groups of galaxies together. As a result, they are moving away from each other more slowly than they should be due to the expansion of the universe. However, the center of this massive gravity lies in the ZOA, which is why the true reason for the gravitational pull of this supercluster has not been elucidated.