ALMA ve un agujero en el Universo
Los acontecimientos que rodean el Big Bang fueron tan cataclísmicos que dejaron una huella indeleble en la composición del cosmos. Hoy podemos detectar estas cicatrices mediante la observación de la luz más antigua del universo. Dado que fue generada hace casi 14.000 millones de años, esta luz — que existe ahora como una débil radiación de microondas y es denominada fondo cósmico de microondas (CMB, de Cosmic Microwave Background) — se ha expandido, impregnando el cosmos entero y llenándolo de fotones detectables.
El CMB puede utilizarse para sondear el cosmos a través de algo conocido como el efecto Siunyáiev-Zeldóvich (SZ), que se observó por primera vez hace 30 años. Detectamos el CMB aquí en la Tierra cuando los fotones de microondas que lo forman viajan a nosotros a través del espacio. En su viaje hacia nosotros, pueden pasar a través de cúmulos de galaxias que contienen electrones de alta energía. Estos electrones dan a los fotones un pequeño aumento de energía. Detectar estos fotones potenciados con nuestros telescopios es difícil, pero importante, ya que pueden ayudar a los astrónomos a comprender algunas de las propiedades fundamentales del universo, como la ubicación y la distribución de los densos cúmulos de galaxias.
Esta imagen muestra las primeras mediciones del efecto térmico Siunyáiev-Zeldóvich con el conjunto ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), en Chile. Los astrónomos combinaron datos de antenas de ALMA de 7 y 12 metros para producir la imagen más nítida posible. El objetivo era uno de los cúmulos de galaxias más masivos conocido, RX J1347.5–1145, que vemos en la imagen como un "agujero" oscuro. Los colores se corresponden con el brillo: en otras palabras, el número de fotones detectados en la gama de longitud de onda estudiada. Los parches rojos, naranjas y amarillos son especialmente brillantes, los cian y verdes tienen un brillo medio, y los azules y morados tienen poco brillo. La distribución de la energía de los fotones del CMB cambia y aparece como una disminución de la temperatura en la longitud de onda observada por ALMA, por lo tanto, en esta imagen se observa un parche oscuro (tonos azul-púrpura) en el lugar en el que se encuentra el cúmulo.
Crédito:ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/T. Kitayama (Toho University, Japan)/ESA/Hubble & NASA
Sobre la imagen
| Identificador: | potw1708a |
| Idioma: | es |
| Tipo: | Observación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 20 de Febrero de 2017 a las 06:00 |
| Tamaño: | 3816 x 3559 px |
Sobre el objeto
| Tipo: | Early Universe : Cosmology |
| Constellation: | Virgo |
Fondo de pantalla
Coordenadas
| Position (RA): | 13 47 30.65 |
| Position (Dec): | -11° 45' 18.95" |
| Field of view: | 1.91 x 1.78 arcminutes |
| Orientación: | El norte está a 130.7° a la derecha de la vertical |
Colores y filtros
| Banda | Longitud de onda | Telescopio |
|---|---|---|
| Milímetro 92 GHz | 3.258613 mm | Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 3 |
| Óptico g | 475 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Óptico B | 435 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Óptico V | 606 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Óptico r | 625 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Óptico i | 775 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Óptico z | 850 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Infrarrojo J | 1.1 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Infrarrojo H short | 1.6 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
| Óptico I | 814 nm | Hubble Space Telescope ACS |
| Infrarrojo J | 1.1 μm | Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 |
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