Right ascension 16 44 48.3 Redshift 3.035 Type Galaxy merger Constellation Hercules | Declination +46° 27′ 08.2″ Distance 11.4 Gly Magnitude 22.6 Apparent magnitude (V) 22.6 | |
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LBG-2377 is the most distant galaxy merger ever discovered, at a distance of 11.4 billion light years. This galaxy merger is so distant that the universe was in its infancy when its light was emitted. It is expected that this galaxy proto-cluster will merge to form a brightest cluster galaxy, and become the core of a larger galaxy cluster.
Discovery
Observations were conducted with the Keck Telescope in Hawaii by Jeff Cooke, a McCue Postdoctoral Fellow in physics and astronomy at UCI. While looking for single galaxies, Cooke found something that at first appeared like a bright, single object. However, further analysis of wavelengths of the emitted light proved that they were three galaxies merging, and likely two smaller galaxies.
References
LBG-2377 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA