Astronomers have spotted a cluster of 14 galaxies far, far away, so piled up on top of each other, and so soon after the Big Bang, that they’re forcing the theorists to check back over their models and simulations of how the universe evolved. It’s an episode chock-full of big things, from galaxies, to clusters of galaxies, to superclusters, to filaments of superclusters … It’s all a bit overwhelming really.

SHOW NOTES

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

Find us on Twitter: @syzygypod twitter.com/SyzygyPod
Or just visit us at home: syzygy.fm

Emily at the University of York: www.york.ac.uk/physics/people/brunsden/
Chris online: kipstewart.com

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Some of the things we talk about in this episode:

The Galactic Pile Up paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0025-2
A good article about the pile up: https://www.sciencealert.com/galaxy-megamergers-in-the-early-universe-protoclusters-spt2349-56-dusty-red-core
Syzygy Ep 01: https://www.syzygy.fm/podcast/2018/4/4/episode01
Rogue planets:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet
The ESA’s Gaia mission: http://sci.esa.int/gaia/
https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Gaia/Gaia_creates_richest_star_map_of_our_Galaxy_and_beyond
The Whirlpool Galaxy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool_Galaxy
The Magellanic Clouds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds
The Local Group of galaxies: https://www.universetoday.com/30286/local-group/
Size comparison of Andromeda and the Moon: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/01/moon_and_andromeda_relative_size_in_the_sky.html
The Virgo Supercluster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgo_Supercluster
The Millennium Simulation Project: https://wwwmpa.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/
A video zoom into the universe from the Millennium Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74IsySs3RGU
Minute Physics video on how the simulation was done, with some awesome graphics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP-C_B8nSmw