Lonely Galaxy That Pulled In All Its Neighbors Observed By Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Space.com

The Chandra X-ray Observatory captured imagery of a galaxy that "appears to have pulled in and assimilated all of its former companion galaxies." according to NASA. Galaxy 3C297 is 9.2 billion light-years away and harbors a quasar.   Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobart

Transcript

00:00 [ music ]

00:02 Visit Chandra's beautiful universe.

00:05 3C 297

00:08 A distant and lonely galaxy appears to have pulled in and assimilated all of its former companion galaxies.

00:17 This result, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the International Gemini Observatory,

00:24 may push the limits for how quickly astronomers expect galaxies to grow in the early universe.

00:30 The unexpectedly solo galaxy is located about 9.2 billion light-years from Earth

00:36 and contains a quasar, a supermassive black hole, pulling in gas at the center of the galaxy

00:42 and driving powerful jets of matter seen in radio waves.

00:47 The environment of this galaxy, known as 3C 297, appears to have the key features of a galaxy cluster,

00:54 enormous structures that usually contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.

00:59 Yet 3C 297 stands alone.

01:03 A team of researchers expected to see at least a dozen galaxies within 3C 297, yet they found only one.

01:10 Accurate distance measurements from Gemini data revealed that none of the 19 galaxies

01:16 that appear close to 3C 297 in the optical image are actually at the same distance as the lonely galaxy.

01:23 The question is, what happened to all of these galaxies in 3C 297?

01:28 The team thinks the gravitational pull of the one large galaxy combined with interactions between the galaxies

01:34 was too strong and they merged with the large galaxy.

01:38 For these galaxies, apparently, resistance was futile.

01:42 The researchers think 3C 297 is no longer a galaxy cluster, but a fossil group.

01:49 This is the end stage of a galaxy pulling in and merging with several other galaxies.

01:54 While many other fossil groups have been detected before, this one is particularly distant,

02:00 at 9.2 billion light years away.

02:03 The previous record holders for fossil groups were at distances of 4.9 and 7.9 billion light years.

02:10 It may be challenging to explain how the universe can create this system only 4.6 billion years after the Big Bang.

02:18 This result doesn't break the current ideas of cosmology, but it begins to push the limits

02:23 on how quickly both galaxies and galaxy clusters must have formed.

02:28 [Music]

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