Phoenix galaxy cluster may be the biggest and brightest ever discovered

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Buddha12

Valued Senior Member
The faraway Phoenix galaxy cluster may be the biggest and brightest such structure ever discovered, and it's forming stars at an unprecedented rate, scientists announced today (Aug. 15).

Here's a by-the-numbers look at the Phoenix cluster — formally known as SPT-CLJ2344-4243 — which researchers say could yield key insights into how galaxies and colossal clusters evolve:

2.5 quadrillion: How many times more massive the Phoenix cluster is than our own sun. This may be an all-time record for galaxy clusters — the most massive structures in the universe, composed of hundreds or thousands of individual galaxies bound together by gravity — researchers said.

http://www.space.com/17129-phoenix-galaxy-cluster-by-the-numbers.html
 
Interesting, i hope that they learn something.
 
I found this part impressive:

"740: The approximate number of stars generated per year by the galaxy in Phoenix's center, a new high for the middle of a cluster.

"This extreme rate of star formation was really unexpected," McDonald said. "It's nearly five times higher than the next most star-forming central-cluster galaxy, in Abell 1835. So it's really crushing the record."

Our own Milky Way galaxy produces just one to two new stars every year on average, McDonald added."
 
cool- but why is the article comparing a galaxy cluster to a galaxy? better yet, why are they comparing a galaxy cluster to a sun???
 
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