Galaxy Hunt: Indians Find Saraswati in the Space!

Galaxy Hunt: Indians Find Saraswati in the Space!
Galaxy Hunt: Indians Find Saraswati in the Space!

A group of astronomers from Pune claimed to have found ‘Saraswati’ in the universe, and no we aren’t talking about the Hindu Goddess of wisdom! Saraswati here refers to an ‘extremely large supercluster of galaxies’ in the outer space. Just recently, the scientists confirmed light transmission from the galaxy. By studying the reflection of light, they can trace the mysterious history of the new galaxy.

As per Mr. Shishir Sankhyayan (Co-Author, IISER), the alleged family of stars is 400 billion light years away from Earth, in the line of the famous Pisces constellation. The newly discovered galaxy is a rare structure having a high concentration of galaxies in the universe.

Milky Way Galaxy!
Milky Way Galaxy!

For those who don’t know, planet Earth, which is a part of the Milky Way galaxy comes under a supercluster named as Laniaka.

It is a first from India, knowing that all authors and researchers involved in this project are Indians. Back in past, it was Somak Raychoudhury, the current director of IUCAA who had discovered a similar ultrastructure of heavenly bodies while pursuing Ph.D. at Cambridge University.

Pisces Constellation in the Universe.
Pisces Constellation in the Universe.

The lead author of the paper, Mr. Joydeep Bagchi from IUCAA shared his research experience with the media in a press statement. According to Mr. Bagchi, the scientists were surprised to find a giant supercluster of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

The mega-galaxy is marked by a large network of cosmic filaments and large voids. Studying the structure and formation of this supercluster will help scientists understand dark energy and its role in the expansion/ evolution of the universe.

Their research provides answers to some important questions like:

  • When did the universe form
  • When did Dark Energy take over the universe formation process
  • How matter-density enhancements enable the formation of heavenly structures.

It’s one of the biggest breakthrough discoveries of Indian space scientists.

Advertisement

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here