Himiko (Lyman-alpha blob)

Himiko
Type	Lyman Alpha Blob
Observation data (Epoch J2000.0)
Right ascension	02h 17m 57.563s
Declination	-05° 08′ 44.45″
Redshift	6.595
See also: Astronomical object, List of astronomical objects

Himiko is a large gas cloud found at redshift of z=6.6 that predates similar Lyman-alpha blobs. Researchers say it "may represent the most massive object ever discovered in the early universe." It is 12.9 billion light years from Earth, or about 75×10²¹ miles (122×10²¹ kilometers).

Size

It is 55,000 light years across (half the diameter of our galaxy), but is said to "hold more than 10 times as much mass as the next largest object found in the early universe, or roughly the equivalent mass of 40 billion suns", making it the most massive object in the known universe.

Discovery

Masami Ouchi, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, Calif stated "I have never heard about any [similar] objects that could be resolved at this distance...[i]t's kind of record-breaking."

Name

The object was named by a Japanese scientist after a 3rd-century Japanese shaman queen Himiko.

References

• SIMBAD, "NAME Himiko" (accessed 12 April 2010)

Literature

• Ouchi, Masami; et. al (2009). "Discovery of a giant Lyα Emitter near the Reionization Epoch". The Astrophysical Journal (696): 1164–1175. arXiv:0807.4174v2. Bibcode 2009ApJ...696.1164O. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/1164. 

External links

• "Mysterious Space Blob Discovered at Cosmic Dawn" (Press release). Carnegie Institute for Science. April 22, 2009. http://carnegiescience.edu/news/mysterious_space_blob_discovered_cosmic_dawn. Retrieved April 30, 2011.