Herschel Sees Intergalactic Bridge Aglow With Stars - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-139
The Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of
galaxies that, along with a third cluster, will smash together in several billion years and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the universe.
The three galaxy clusters of the emerging supercluster, known as RCS2319, are seen in visible and X-ray light (purple) to the left. Observations by Her-
schel in infrared light appear to the right, with colored regions indicating greater infrared emissions. A white circle broadly outlines the 8 million light-year-
long intergalactic filament in each image. In visible light, the filament does not stand out because dust obscures the star-formation activity in distant
galaxies. Telescopes like Herschel, however, can detect the infrared glow of this dust as it is heated by newborn stars. The amount of infrared light sug-
gests that the galaxies in the filament are cranking out the equivalent of about 1,000 new Suns in terms of mass per year. For comparison's sake, our
Milky Way galaxy is producing about one Sun's mass-worth of new stars per year.