Rubin Observatory Will Unlock Fossil Record of Galaxy Cluster Evolution
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2023 9:36 pm
Rubin Observatory Will Unlock Fossil Record of Galaxy Cluster Evolution
Read more here:
https://www.newswise.com/articles/rubin ... -evolution
Newswise — Galaxies, like our Milky Way galaxy, are collections of billions of stars held together by gravity. Sometimes galaxies clump together in clusters containing hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. These galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the Universe that are held together by their own gravity, and they take billions of years to form and change. If we could somehow watch their evolution in fast-forward, we wouldn’t need movies — the dramatic interactions between galaxies would keep us mesmerized. But there is a way we can read the stories of galaxy cluster history, and our cosmic storyteller is the population of stars that have been stripped from their home galaxies and strewn into the spaces between galaxies in the cluster. These stars give off a ghostly glow called intracluster light, and it’s at least 1000 times fainter than the darkest night sky we can perceive with our eyes. Intracluster light has stayed mostly hidden from existing telescopes and cameras because it’s so faint. But with the data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will begin in 2025, scientists will be able to observe this extremely faint light like never before.
Read more here:
https://www.newswise.com/articles/rubin ... -evolution
Newswise — Galaxies, like our Milky Way galaxy, are collections of billions of stars held together by gravity. Sometimes galaxies clump together in clusters containing hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. These galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the Universe that are held together by their own gravity, and they take billions of years to form and change. If we could somehow watch their evolution in fast-forward, we wouldn’t need movies — the dramatic interactions between galaxies would keep us mesmerized. But there is a way we can read the stories of galaxy cluster history, and our cosmic storyteller is the population of stars that have been stripped from their home galaxies and strewn into the spaces between galaxies in the cluster. These stars give off a ghostly glow called intracluster light, and it’s at least 1000 times fainter than the darkest night sky we can perceive with our eyes. Intracluster light has stayed mostly hidden from existing telescopes and cameras because it’s so faint. But with the data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will begin in 2025, scientists will be able to observe this extremely faint light like never before.