Himiko (Lyman-alpha blob)

Himiko is a large gas cloud found at redshift of z=6.6 that predates similar Lyman-alpha blobs. At the time of its discovery in 2009, researchers said it "may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe".[1] It is located in Cetus at redshift z=6.595, about 12.9 billion light years from Earth, or about 75×1021 miles (122×1021 kilometers).

Himiko
Image of Himiko using data from various sources
Object typeLyman-alpha blob, emission-line galaxy Edit this on Wikidata
Observation data
(Epoch J2000.0)
ConstellationCetus Edit this on Wikidata
02h 17m 57.563s
Declination−05° 08′ 44.45″
Redshift6.1 Edit this on Wikidata
24.61 ±0.08, 24.8 ±0.08, 24.9 ±0.2, 25.82 ±0.15 Edit this on Wikidata

Characteristics

This nebular gas cloud is thought to be a protogalaxy, caught in the act of formation. There have been no spectroscopic signatures of anything other than hydrogen or helium, and its luminance cannot be ascribed to gravitational lensing, black holes or exterior excitation. The lack of any chemical signatures other than hydrogen and helium illustrate the extreme primitiveness of the object, and early enough so as not to be polluted by carbon signatures from young stars.[2]

Size

It is 55,000 light years across (half the diameter of our galaxy), and at the time of discovery, 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".[1]

Discovery

Masami Ouchi, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, California, 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 by a Japanese scientist after the 3rd-century Japanese shaman queen Himiko.[1][3]

References
  1. Hsu, Jeremy (2009-04-22). "Giant Mystery Blob Discovered Near Dawn of Time". SPACE.com. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
  2. "Astronomers Probe the Primitive Nature of a Distant 'Space Blob'". Science Daily. 16 January 2014.
  3. "Mysterious Space Blob Discovered at Cosmic Dawn". Carnegie Institution for Science. 22 April 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-04-25. Retrieved 2009-04-23.

Further reading


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