Himiko, remote gas cloud

2009/04/23 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronomia

The image may not say much, but it is one of the most distant objects ever seen; it is a giant amorphous cloud formed by hydrogen gases. Astronomers at the California Carnegie Institute observatory have named Himi. The Universe was 800 million years old (currently the Universe is 13.6 billion years old). Astronomers are surprised. And they do not know very well how this object arose, because it does not correspond to the theory of the Big Bang. According to this theory, first of all small objects were formed that as they merged were creating larger systems. But Himiko is too big for the universe to be so young. This raises many doubts to scientists.

To find this remote cloud they have used several world telescopes of different wavelengths. The finding will be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal.

Image courtesy of: M. Ouchi et al.