Why does colossal new space oddity Himiko baffle scientists?
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday announced the discovery of a massive and mysterious gas blob of the type that can be precursors to galaxies, which they dubbed Himiko. The data used in identifying the megablob came from a suite of telescopes. Scientists said the object, which they named Himiko for the legendary Japanese queen, existed when our universe was only about 800 million years old. Our universe, borne of the Big Bang as the theory goes, is an estimated 13.7 billion years old. Himiko, a ball of gas, stretches for 55,000 light years, a record for that early era. The enormous length is comparable to the radius of our Milky Way’s disk. Still, astronomers remain uncertain about Himiko’s nature. Even with a blizzard of data from the best telescopes in the world, they are not entirely certain about what the blob is. The image of Himiko, one of the remotest heavenly bodies ever found by scientists, is blurry, so astronomers have not been able to get a handle on its physical
They dubbed it Himiko: The data used in identifying the megablob came from a suite of telescopes. Scientists said the object, which they named Himiko for the legendary Japanese queen, existed when our universe was only about 800 million years old. Our universe, borne of the Big Bang as the theory goes, is an estimated 13.7 billion years old. Himiko, a ball of gas, stretches for 55,000 light years, a record for that early era. The enormous length is comparable to the radius of our Milky Way’s disk. Still, astronomers remain uncertain about Himiko’s nature. Even with a blizzard of data from the best telescopes in the world, they are not entirely certain about what the blob is. The image of Himiko, one of the remotest heavenly bodies ever found by scientists, is blurry, so astronomers have not been able to get a handle on its physical makeup. Among the many possibilities, astronomers believe it could be ionized gas powered by a tremendous black hole; or it could be a pre-galaxy with a gre
The data used in identifying the megablob came from a suite of telescopes. Scientists said the object, which they named Himiko for the legendary Japanese queen, existed when our universe was only about 800 million years old. Our universe, borne of the Big Bang as the theory goes, is an estimated 13.7 billion years old. Himiko, a ball of gas, stretches for 55,000 light years, a record for that early era. The enormous length is comparable to the radius of our Milky Way’s disk. The image of Himiko, one of the remotest heavenly bodies ever found by scientists, is blurry, so astronomers have not been able to get a handle on its physical makeup. Astronomers believe it could be ionized gas powered by a tremendous black hole; or it could be a pre-galaxy with a great gas buildup. Himiko could have been borne of the dramatic collision of two young galaxies, by a mega-wind resultingg from an intensive star formation, or may be one giant galaxy, with the mass of some 40 billion suns. Sources:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Astronomers on Wednesday announced the discovery of a massive and mysterious gas blob of the type that can be precursors to galaxies, which they dubbed Himiko. The data used in identifying the megablob came from a suite of telescopes. Scientists said the object, which they named Himiko for the legendary Japanese queen, existed when our universe was only about 800 million years old. Our universe, borne of the Big Bang as the theory goes, is an estimated 13.7 billion years old. Himiko, a ball of gas, stretches for 55,000 light years, a record for that early era. The enormous length is comparable to the radius of our Milky Way’s disk. Still, astronomers remain uncertain about Himiko’s nature. Even with a blizzard of data from the best telescopes in the world, they are not entirely certain about what the blob is. The image of Himiko, one of the remotest heavenly bodies ever found by scientists, is blurry, so astronomers have not been able to get a handle on its physical
They dubbed it Himiko: The data used in identifying the megablob came from a suite of telescopes. Scientists said the object, which they named Himiko for the legendary Japanese queen, existed when our universe was only about 800 million years old. Our universe, borne of the Big Bang as the theory goes, is an estimated 13.7 billion years old. Himiko, a ball of gas, stretches for 55,000 light years, a record for that early era. The enormous length is comparable to the radius of our Milky Way’s disk. Still, astronomers remain uncertain about Himiko’s nature. Even with a blizzard of data from the best telescopes in the world, they are not entirely certain about what the blob is. The image of Himiko, one of the remotest heavenly bodies ever found by scientists, is blurry, so astronomers have not been able to get a handle on its physical makeup. Among the many possibilities, astronomers believe it could be ionized gas powered by a tremendous black hole; or it could be a pre-galaxy with a gre
