Astronomers have discovered a previously hidden "cosmic fuel tank" in an infant cluster of forming galaxies.
This vast reservoir of cool molecular gas is found in the protocluster known as SPT2349-56, located 12 billion light-years away, and could power an intense burst of star formation in the baby galaxies that could go on for 400 million years.
The team behind this discovery speculates that this gas could eventually become the hot, diffuse gas called the intracluster medium (ICM) that has been seen filling mature galaxy clusters.
