pith. sign in

A massive proto-cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z {\approx} 5.3

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Massive clusters of galaxies have been found as early as 3.9 Billion years (z=1.62) after the Big Bang containing stars that formed at even earlier epochs. Cosmological simulations using the current cold dark matter paradigm predict these systems should descend from "proto-clusters" - early over-densities of massive galaxies that merge hierarchically to form a cluster. These proto-cluster regions themselves are built-up hierarchically and so are expected to contain extremely massive galaxies which can be observed as luminous quasars and starbursts. However, observational evidence for this scenario is sparse due to the fact that high-redshift proto-clusters are rare and difficult to observe. Here we report a proto-cluster region 1 billion years (z=5.3) after the Big Bang. This cluster of massive galaxies extends over >13 Mega-parsecs, contains a luminous quasar as well as a system rich in molecular gas. These massive galaxies place a lower limit of >4x10^11 solar masses of dark and luminous matter in this region consistent with that expected from cosmological simulations for the earliest galaxy clusters.

fields

astro-ph.GA 3

years

2026 3

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 3

representative citing papers

Fueling and feedback mechanisms at the nodes of the cosmic web

astro-ph.GA · 2026-06-30 · unverdicted · novelty 4.0

Proposes 80 hours of VESPER observations on ELT to obtain spatially resolved data on fueling, feedback, and quenching processes in the cores of five clusters at 1.5<z<1.7 and five protoclusters at 2<z<2.5.

citing papers explorer

Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.