Himiko is a newly discovered gas cloud that predates similar Lyman-alpha blobs. Researchers say it "may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe."[1] It is 12.9 billion light years from Earth, or about 75×1021 miles (122×1021 kilometers).
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Size
It is said to hold "more than 10 times as much mass as the next largest object found in the early universe, or roughly the equivalent mass of 40 billion suns. At 55,000 light years across, it spans about half the diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy." [1]
Discovery
Masami Ouchi, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, Calif stated "I have never heard about any [similar] objects that could be resolved at this distance...[i]t's kind of record-breaking."[1]
Name
The object was named after an obscure 3rd-century Japanese shaman queen Himiko.[2][3]
Literature
- Ouchi, Masami; et. al (2009). "Discovery of a giant Lyα Emitter near the Reionization Epoch". The Astrophysical Journal (696): 1164–1175. doi:. arΧiv:0807.4174v2.
References
- ^ a b c Hsu, Jeremy (2009-04-22). "Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time". SPACE.com. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090422-space-blob.html. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
- ^ "Experts Puzzled by Strange Space Blob". AOL News Canada. 2009-04-24. http://news.aol.ca/article/experts-puzzled-by-strange-space-blob/607440/. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
- ^ "Mysterious Space Blob Discovered at Cosmic Dawn". Carnegie Institution for Science. 22 April 2009. http://www.ciw.edu/news/mysterious_space_blob_discovered_cosmic_dawn. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
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