19/09/2026
🌌🔥 The early Universe was far more violent than astronomers expected.
About 12 billion years ago, when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old, the forming galaxy cluster SPT2349-56 already contained an enormous reservoir of superheated gas.
Using ALMA, astronomers detected the earliest direct evidence yet of hot intracluster gas—revealing that this young cluster was already experiencing extreme heating much earlier than expected.
Scientists had predicted that galaxy clusters this young would still contain relatively cool gas, gradually settling as the cluster assembled. Instead, the observations reveal a remarkably energetic environment in the Universe’s infancy. 🔭✨