Astronomers map massive COSMOS-z3. 1-A protosupercluster

An international team of astronomers has mapped COSMOS-z3. 1-A, the most distant and massive protosupercluster ever observed. Located approximately 12 billion light-years away, the structure existed when the universe was only about 2.1 billion years old. It possesses an estimated mass roughly 5,000 times that of the Milky Way.

Using data from the ODIN survey and extensive spectroscopy, researchers reconstructed three-dimensional maps of two enormous protoclusters, COSMOS-z3. 1-A and COSMOS-z3. 1-C. COSMOS-z3. 1-A contains 10 distinct density peaks connected by filaments of galaxies and matter, representing an early stage of cosmic structure formation.

The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal, support the “bottom-up” model of cosmic evolution, where smaller concentrations of matter merge along filaments to form the massive, stable galaxy clusters seen in the modern universe.