New supercluster discovered by astronomers

By analyzing data from the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new supercluster. The newly found structure consists of eight galaxy clusters. The discovery is reported in a paper published December 21 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Superclusters contain a variety of structures with a range of masses, from massive and dense galaxy clusters to low-density bridges, light bulbs, and sheets of matter, and are among the largest structures in the known universe. Finding and investigating superclusters in detail could be essential to improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of large cosmic filaments.

Now a group of astronomers led by Vittorio Ghirardini of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, are reporting the discovery of a new supercluster. The structure was identified by the eFEDS survey during the performance verification (PV) phase.

“We analyze the 140 degrees² eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) field, observed during the performance verification phase to a nominal depth of approximately 2.3 ks. We are detecting a previously unknown supercluster in this area, ‘the astronomers wrote in the newspaper.

The supercluster consists of a chain of eight galaxy clusters with a redshift of 0.36. The observations show that the most northerly clusters of this structure are experiencing significant fusion activity that is off-axis. Optical and X-ray data suggest it is a triple fusion system with a double fusion and a pre-fusion.

The cluster named eFEDS J093513.3 + 004746, which is located in the northern part of the supercluster, is the most massive and bright of the eight. It is also one of the most massive and luminous clusters in the entire eFEDS field. Its mass was calculated at 580 trillion solar masses.

The least massive clusters of this supercluster, eFEDS J093546.4-000115 and eFEDS J093543.9-000334, have a mass of about 130 trillion solar masses. The mass of the other five clusters is estimated to be between 140 and 250 trillion solar masses.

In addition, the data revealed the existence of two radio relics in the north and southeast of the northernmost clusters and an elongated radio halo, which also supports the ongoing fusion activity scenario.

“The presence of an elongated radiohalo connecting two radio relics in eFEDS J093513.3 + 004746 and eFEDS J093510.7 + 004910 indicates that the cluster is undergoing major fusion. the northern and southern regions of the cluster system, ”the astronomers explained.

Overall, the study reports that the X-ray properties of the eight clusters that make up the new supercluster are similar to those of the common eFEDS cluster population. In addition, their morphological properties are also consistent with the sample of more than 300 clusters identified by eFEDS.

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