LBG-2377
Distant galaxy merger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LBG-2377 is the most distant galaxy merger discovered, as of 2008, at a distance of 11.4 billion light years.[2] This galaxy merger is so distant that the universe was in its infancy when its light was emitted. It is expected that this galaxy proto-cluster will merge to form a brightest cluster galaxy, and become the core of a larger galaxy cluster.
| LBG-2377 | |
|---|---|
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Hercules |
| Right ascension | 16h 44m 48.3s[1] |
| Declination | +46° 27′ 08.2″[1] |
| Redshift | 3.03[1] |
| Distance | 11.4 billion light-years (3.5 billion parsecs) (light travel distance) ~21.2 billion light-years (6.5 billion parsecs) (present proper distance) |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 22.6 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | Galaxy merger, Lyman-break galaxy, galaxy protocluster |
| Other designations | |
| PC 1643+4631A-2377 | |
Discovery
Observations were conducted with the Keck Telescope in Hawaii by Jeff Cooke, a McCue Postdoctoral Fellow in physics and astronomy at UCI. While looking for single galaxies, Cooke found something that at first appeared like a bright, single object. However, further analysis of wavelengths of the emitted light proved that they were three galaxies merging, and likely two smaller galaxies.
