47 / Great news: Galaxy found

The Sun-Herald reports today:

Scientists have found the most distant galaxy cluster ever observed and believe the discovery might provide clues as to how the universe was formed.

The cluster is about 10.2 billion light years away and was observed as it was when the universe was a quarter of its present age, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said. ''Finding such a large structure at this very early epoch can reveal important information about how the universe evolved at this crucial stage,'' it said.

Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity. The system is about a billion light years further away than the previous record holder. NASA experts said the cluster existed at the edge of time when scientists speculate such clusters could have formed, so its properties might reveal how the universe took shape.

There are few things that fascinate me more than the universe - isn't that newly found galaxy cluster beautiful? Remember, a galaxy cluster is a formation of galaxies - it contains probably hundreds of galaxies, each of which contain billions of stars and planets. Check out my essay COSMOS.

the galaxy cluster JKCS041, photo: NASA