Massive clusters of galaxies have been found to date from as early as3-4 billion years after the Big Bang. Cosmological simulations using thecurrent cold dark matter model predict that these systems should descendfrom proto-clusters - early overdensities of massive galaxies thatmerge hierarchically to form a cluster. These protocluster regionsthemselves are built up hierarchically and so are expected to containextremely massive galaxies, progenitors of the quiescent behemothsobserved in cores of the present day massive galaxy clusters.Observational evidence for this picture, however, is sparse becausehigh-redshift proto-clusters are rare and difficult to observe. Here wepropose to probe with Herschel SPIRE the very beginning of the cluster andmassive galaxies formation process by observing 5 proto-clusters at 3
Publication
Instrument
SPIRE_SpirePhoto_large
Temporal Coverage
2012-02-29T23:47:23Z/2012-10-01T10:02:08Z
Version
SPG v14.1.0
Mission Description
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth cornerstone mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.
European Space Agency, altieri et al., 2013, 'Star formation in proto-clusters', SPG v14.1.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-ncafgao