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Nature Study Finds Early Galaxy Cluster With Gas Five Times Hotter Than Models Allow

ALMA’s Sunyaev–Zeldovich measurement indicates early black hole feedback driving the excess heat.

Overview

  • The international team reports an SZ-based detection in SPT2349-56 at redshift about 4.3, with results published on January 5 in Nature.
  • The intracluster medium is at least five times hotter than predicted for such a young cluster, exceeding temperatures in many present-day systems.
  • Observations with ALMA probed the cluster roughly 12 billion light-years away by measuring its distortion of the cosmic microwave background.
  • SPT2349-56 packs more than 30 active galaxies within a roughly 500,000-light-year core that is forming stars thousands of times faster than the Milky Way.
  • The authors point to energy injection from multiple supermassive black holes as the likely cause and will conduct follow-up searches and multiwavelength studies to assess how common this rapid heating is.