NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton has discovered the enormous arms of hot gas surrounding the Coma cluster of galaxies. This finding may finally reveal how clusters were formed through the years, growing by the merging of smaller clusters of galaxies before finally becoming among the largest formations in the universe kept together by gravity.
The discovery points out a course wherein gas from smaller galaxy clusters was taken away by the wind from the cluster’s movement through hot gas, causing the formation of the arms as currently noted.
Scientists reported in a study that it is unusual for a coma to have a couple of huge elliptical galaxies near its center, in which both are possibly a remnant of two huge clusters that united with Coma in the past.
The arms of the Coma are estimated to be 300 million years old based on the speed of sound in hot gas and their length measured by the scientists. With this finding, together with the verity that they have flawless shapes give extra clues about the conditions of the hot gas found in Coma, which suggests a fairly calm environment in spite of its numerous mergers.
Hypothetically, as a result of large-scale magnetic fields, there is a presence of small amount of turbulence in Coma, though approximating just how unstable a galaxy cluster can be is a challenge for astrophysicists. As of the moment, an array of answers came up, however, since there are some conflicts, there is still a need for more in-depth research.
Remarks about the new arms show that both seems to be connected to a group of galaxies located at around two million light-years from Coma’s core. One of these arms, at least, is connected to a larger formation and stretches at roughly 1.5 million light-years.
The study was published in the Sept. 20 issue of Nature World News.
