You think you have gas?
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Sat, 2006-06-17 13:28.
LA Times: Great Ball of Fire: X-Rays Spot Mass of Gas 5 Billion Times Larger Than Solar System
Scientists have discovered the largest ball of hot gas ever found, a monstrous sphere of fire streaking through a galaxy cluster millions of light-years away.
“The size and velocity of this gas ball is truly fantastic,” said physicist Alexis Finoguenov of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “This is likely a massive building block being delivered to one of the largest assembly of galaxies we know.”
The gas ball, which was found using the European XMMNewton X-ray space observatory, is 3 million light-years across — 5 billion times the size of our solar system. Images show it as a circular X-ray glow with a stumpy comet-like tail….