Protocluster of extinct galaxies discovered
(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers led by scientists from the University of Tokyo announced the discovery of a new protocluster QO-1000, which contains at least 14 massive extinct galaxies.
The protocluster QO-1000 has a redshift of z = 2.77, which corresponds to an intrinsic distance of 20.2 billion light-years (taking into account the expansion of the Universe since the emission of light reaching the Earth).
The density of extinct galaxies in the structure is 68 times greater than that of extinct galaxies in the general field, and the proportion of galaxies without active star formation processes in the protocluster is about three times higher than the average value at a given redshift.
The high stellar mass of the galaxies indicates that they are in a massive halo.
The structure likely resides in a much more massive halo than other typical resting galaxies of the same stellar mass, the scientists say.
QO-1000 is thus a more mature protocluster than most known protoclusters and is likely in a transition phase from star-forming protoclusters to local extinct clusters.
According to the authors of the article, their discovery proves that even at a redshift of almost three, galaxies in protoclusters can be extinguished and at the same time form a superdense structure.
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