Written by Linda Vu, Spitzer Science Center
May 28, 2007
Large galaxy clusters are the universe’s metropolises, and for years many astronomers have focused their attention on the crowded “downtowns.” However, a new map of some of the largest ancient galactic cities shows that much of the “action” is happening in the cosmic suburbs.
An announcement on this result will be made today (May 28) at the 210th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Drs. Gordon Squires, Mark Lacy, and Jason Surace of the Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, Calif. are co-investigators on the project.
“The most interesting thing that we’ve found so far is the incredible amount of activity occurring in galactic suburbia,” says Dr. Lori Lubin, of the University of California at Davis, who is the principal investigator of the Observations of Redshift Evolution in Large Scale Environments (ORELSE) Survey. “We see unusually large numbers of galaxies with high star formation rates, producing over 100 new suns per year, and with active central supermassive black holes.”
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