 | | | | |
| | | | | |
|
Space Science About Space ScienceESA's 'Cosmic Vision'Science & Technology in-depthMultimedia Science imagesScience videosAnimationsDownloadsSounds from spaceMedia centre Press ReleasesPress kitsESA TelevisionResources Reference sectionGlossaryFAQs Science missions Services HelpLegal disclaimerCommentsSubscribeFollow us  RSS feeds ESA Sci on Twitter
| | | | | | | What is the Universe made of?
16 December 2003
| | The fuzzy object at the centre of the frame is one of the galaxy clusters observed by XMM-Newton in its investigation of the distant Universe. The cluster, designated RXJ0847.2+3449, is about 7 000 million light years away, so we see it here as it was 7 000 million years ago, when the Universe was only about half of its present age. This cluster is made up of several dozen galaxies. | |  |  | |
| | | | | The XMM-Newton spacecraft is the biggest science satellite ever built in Europe. Its telescope mirrors are the most powerful developed so far and, with its sensitive detectors, it sees much more than any previous X-ray satellite.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | This is an artist's impression of how the very early Universe (less than 1 thousand million years old) might have looked when it went through a voracious onset of star formation, converting primordial hydrogen into myriad stars at an unprecedented rate. The sky then would have looked very different from the sea of quiescent galaxies around us today. The sky is ablaze with primeval starburst galaxies. Giant elliptical and spiral galaxies have yet to form. Within the starburst galaxies, bright knots of hot blue stars come and go like bursting fireworks shells. Regions of new starbirth glow intensely red under a torrent of ultraviolet radiation. The most massive stars self-detonate as supernovas, exploding across the sky like firecrackers. A foreground starburst galaxy in the bottom right corner is sculpted with hot bubbles from supernova explosions and torrential stellar winds. There is very little dust in these galaxies since heavier elements have not yet been made through nucleosynthesis in stars. Astronomers think that the first stars in the Universe appeared in an abrupt eruption of star formation, rather than at a gradual pace.
Credits: A. Schaller (STScI) | | | | |
| |
| | More about... XMM-Newton overviewRelated articles Observations: Seeing in X-ray wavelengthsSo, how did everything start?What are 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'?Observations: Seeing in the gamma-ray wavelengths
|
HI-RES JPEG (Size: 
HI RES JPG (Size: 
HI RES JPG (Size: