Weighing an Extremely Massive, Distant Galaxy Cluster

Astronomers combined data from three of NASA’s Great Observatories to make the most detailed study yet of an extremely massive young galaxy cluster. The object is a rare cluster of galaxies, which is located 10 billion light-years from Earth. It is almost as massive as 500 trillion suns. How are these huge structures formed in the universe? Tune in to find out. The galaxy cluster, called IDCS J1426.5+3508 (IDCS 1426 for short), is so far away that the light detected by the observatories originated when the universe was young, roughly a quarter of its current age. It is the most massive galaxy cluster detected at such an early age.