Astronomers glimpse clusters of galaxies forming

2015-03-31 - By combining the strengths of the Herschel and Planck space telescopes, researchers have found objects seen at a time when the universe was only three billion years old, which may the first signs of galaxies clumping together—an important clue to how our universe evolved.

This collection of images shows an orange coloured oval-shaped map of the sky produced by Planck, with dust the Milky Way appearing as a grey band stretching across the centre of the image. Each of the black dots indicate the locations where Planck spotted clusters of galaxies developing. The surrounding series of images, taken by Herschel, show what scientists think are the formation actual clusters themselves, with the contours representing their density.

(Credits: ESA and the Planck Collaboration, H. Dole, D. Guéry & G. Hurier/IAS, CNES, University Paris-Sud, CNRS)