NASA's Chandra weighs universe's most massive young, distant galaxy cluster

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has weighed the most massive young, distant galaxy cluster in the universe.

The astronomers found that the galaxy cluster, seen at the comparatively young age of about 800 million years, is the most massive known cluster with that age or younger.

The galaxy cluster was originally discovered using ESA's XMM-Newton observatory and is located about 9.6 billion light years from Earth.

Astronomers used X-ray data from Chandra that, when combined with scientific models, provides an accurate weight of the cluster, which comes in at a whopping 400 trillion times the mass of the Sun. Scientists believe the cluster formed about 3.3 billion years after the Big Bang.

The cluster is officially named XDCP J0044.0-2033, but the researchers have nicknamed it "Gioiello", which is Italian for "jewel". They chose this name because an image of the cluster contains many sparkling colors from the hot, X-ray emitting gas and various star-forming galaxies within the cluster. Also, the research team met to discuss the Chandra data for the first time at Villa il Gioiello, a 15th century villa near the Observatory of Arcetri, which was the last residence of prominent Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.

The researchers also note that there are hints of uneven structure in the hot gas. These may be large clumps that could have been caused by collisions and mergers with smaller clusters of galaxies and provides clues to how the cluster became so hefty at its early age. The authors expect that the cluster is still young enough to be undergoing many such interactions.

The study will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.