- Pinwheel galaxy
To catch a glimpse of the early universe, astronomers must point a large camera that can sense thermal glow from thick layers of cosmic dust in the direction of Aquarius. One such camera is the AzTEC, a large UMass Amherst instrument funded in part by the National Science Foundation, and one such team of star-students is headed by Grant Wilson, astronomy. Since the 1990s, they have known about a cluster of galaxies 11.5 billion light years away—that’s when the universe was only about 2 billion years old and clusters of galaxies were just sprouting. This area hosts hundreds of small but bright galaxies, called Lyman alpha emitters. A new AzTEC study introduces evidence that dim but ultra-massive systems may form the backbone of a growing cluster that produces about 1,000 suns each year. To finally collect data about these thick, obstructive clouds of dust gives good sight to what even the Hubble telescope can only glimpse.
