El Gordo: A 'fat' distant galaxy cluster
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 15:30
in Astronomy & Space
An extremely hot, massive young galaxy cluster is the largest ever seen in the distant universe. The newly discovered galaxy cluster has been nicknamed El Gordo -- the "big" or "fat one" in Spanish. It consists of two separate galaxy subclusters colliding at several million kilometres per hour, and is so far away that its light has travelled for seven billion years to reach Earth.