UMBC Astrophysicist, International Team, Searching X-Ray Sky

Scientists on a quest to find hidden black holes in the local universe have found surprisingly few.

The observation implies that if these hidden black holes exist - and most scientists are convinced they do - they must be from the more distant, earlier universe, a concept that has interesting implications for galaxy evolution.

This work constitutes the first census of the highest-energy part of the X-ray sky, where the most dust-enshrouded black holes are thought to shine. A team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., conducted the census, comprised of nearly two years of continuous data from the European Space Agency's International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, or INTEGRAL, satellite.

"Naturally it is difficult to find something we know is hiding well and which has eluded detection so far," said Volker Beckmann of Goddard and the Joint Center for Astrophysics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, lead author on a report in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. "INTEGRAL is a telescope that should see nearby hidden black holes, but we have come up short." Beckmann, a research assistant professor in UMBC's physics department, will teach "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology" there this fall.

The X-ray sky is thousands to millions of times more energetic than the visible sky familiar to our eyes. Much of the X-ray activity is from black holes violently sucking in gas from their surroundings.

Recent breakthroughs in X-ray astronomy, including a thorough black hole census with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, have all dealt with lower-energy X-rays. The energy range is roughly 2,000 to 20,000 electron-volts. Optical light, in comparison, is about 2 electron volts.

The INTEGRAL survey is the first of its kind to glimpse into the largely unexplored higher-energy, or "hard," X-ray regime of 20,000 to 40,000 electron-volts.

"The X-ray background, this pervasive blanket of X-ray light we see everywhere in the universe, peaks at about 30,000 electron volts, yet we really know next to nothing about what produces this radiation," said co-author Neil Gehrels of Goddard.

The theory is that hidden black holes, which scientists call Compton-thick objects, are responsible for the peak at 30,000 electron volts. These X-rays are so energetic that they would penetrate even the most dust-enshrouded black holes yet remain beyond the range of powerful lower-energy X-ray observatories such as Chandra.

High-energy light in general is harder to focus than optical and lower-energy (longer-wavelength) forms of light. As a result, INTEGRAL doesn't have the resolution to make sharp images like Chandra and Hubble can.

"Basically, the higher you go in energy, the harder it is to detect faint sources," said Chris Shrader of Goddard, another co-author. "This is why no hard X-ray mission has been able to study many individual objects in the distant universe. That would require a next-generation telescope. But INTEGRAL is now the first to resolve the local universe."

INTEGRAL can obtain an unbiased count of black holes in the local universe by virtue of seeing even those that are hidden. Of all the black hole galaxies that INTEGRAL detected---that is, galaxies with supermassive black holes in their cores actively accreting gas---about 40 percent were unobscured black hole galaxies, called Seyfert 1 galaxies. About 50 percent were somewhat obscured black hole galaxies called Seyfert 2 galaxies. And less than 10 percent were the heavily shrouded "Compton thick" variety.

This implies that if hidden black holes make up the bulk of the X-ray background, they aren't local. Why? One reason could be that, in the modern local universe, these black holes have had time to blow away the gas and dust that once enshrouded them, leaving them unobscured. This liberation of gas and dust would have its consequences; it would blow away to influence star and galaxy formation elsewhere.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Beckmann said. "In a few more months we will have a larger survey completed with the Swift mission. Our goal is to push this kind of observation deeper and deeper into the universe to see black hole activity at early epochs. That's the next great challenge for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomers."

Simona Soldi and Nicolas Produit of the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre near Geneva, Switzerland, also participated in this result.

This story courtesy of NASA Goddard News.

For images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/integral_blackholes.html

Rachel M. Brewster Among Just 3 U.S. Biologists Nominated by NSF to Receive Presidential Early Career Award

UMBC biologist Rachel M. Brewster received the nation’s top honor for promising young scientists, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which were announced at a White House ceremony today.

The PECASE provides up to five years of financial support to the honored scientists for research and community outreach. Awardees must be nominated by a participating federal agency or department. Brewster was one of just three U.S. biologists nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) who were selected for the PECASE.

Rachel Brewster credits her student researchers with helping her win the PECASE award. Left to right: graduate students Michael Harrington (also a Meyerhoff Scholar), Pradeepa Jayachandran, Elim Hong, and Kavita Chalasani, Brewster, undergraduate student Nel Trasybule and high school student summer intern Stephen Maouyo.

Brewster will use her PECASE funding to involve high school, undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds in her lab’s research. Brewster’s specialty is genetic analysis of zebrafish embryos to better understand the causes of birth defects of the brain and central nervous system, the most common of which is spina bifida, the leading cause of childhood paralysis in the United States.

“It's certainly an amazing honor to receive this award,” said Brewster. In her acceptance speech, Brewster thanked UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski as the catalyst for the University’s Meyerhoff Scholarship Program. The Meyerhoff Program has become known as a national model for drawing talented minority students into research careers that often begin under the mentorship of UMBC professors.

“I have been very fortunate to work with some of these students in my lab,” said Brewster. She singled out UMBC alumna and former Meyerhoff Scholar Keisha John, who now attends the Watson Graduate School of Biological Sciences, as instrumental in producing some key data that made the award nomination possible.

“This is a great honor for Rachel and the department,” said Lasse Lindahl, professor and chair of UMBC’s biological sciences department. “The award will make officials in the White House’s Office of Science and Technology and colleagues around the country more familiar with the quality of research at UMBC. We are very proud of Dr. Brewster and her accomplishments.”

“Rachel Brewster is a wonderful colleague, an inspiring role model and a dedicated mentor to many students at UMBC,” said Lynn Zimmerman, professor of biology and vice provost for academic initiatives at UMBC. “She is a tremendous asset to UMBC's biological sciences department and we are delighted to see her receive this well deserved recognition.”

Brewster, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UMBC, received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and did postdoctoral work at the New York University’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge early in their careers. President Bush honored a total of 60 young scientists for their extensive research accomplishments and for their noteworthy educational contributions at the ceremony.

Mentoring the Next Generation of Journalists

“There are some very bright students at UMBC – our best could compete anywhere.”

Christopher Corbett, who recently became acting chair of the English department, knows of whom he speaks.

For 16 years, he’s offered his quarter century experience as a professional reporter and editor to a growing list of former Retriever Weekly student newspaper staffers who have gone on to begin promising journalism careers.

“I tell them you are only of value to someone if you’ve had a job,” Corbett said. “It’s like baseball, there’s a farm system. You go work for a smaller paper for a few years, and once you have that experience, you have a much better shot at making your way back to a major metro area daily.”

The list of former Retriever staffers who now represent UMBC in the media world includes:

Vikki Valentine ‘96 is a staff writer at National Public Radio in Washington who writes about science and medicine and just returned from a year off getting her masters in the history of medicine at University College, London.

Jamie Smith-Hopkins ’98 was a President’s Scholar and valedictorian. She now works as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.  She was recently awarded best overall individual entry and best serial in any medium along with best journalist under 30 prize by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Anna Kaplan ’03 works as a staff writer at the Stockton Record in California (a Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal affiliate).

Scott Daugherty ’02 and Pat Furgurson ’99 are general assignment reporters at the Annapolis Capital.

Amanda Krotki ’95 works at the Baltimore Sun’s Web site as senior producer of BaltimoreMetromix.com.

Grant Huang ‘06, a winner of the 2005 Cleghorn Fellowship offered by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, just joined the staff of the Maryland Gazette as a reporter.

Richard McNey ’03 works for Chesapeake Publishing Corporation as the editor of the Chesapeake Business Ledger, a monthly business publication that covers business much of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

A former news editor and reporter with the Associated Press, Corbett wrote for many of the nation’s largest newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is also the award-winning writer of Style magazine in Baltimore’s Back Page column and two books: Vacationland (Viking/Penguin), a novel about his home state of Maine, and Orphans Preferred (Random House/Broadway Books), which chronicles the legendary Pony Express.

Corbett’s next book will return to the American Wild West for a look at the role Chinese immigrants played in the making of that mythical era.

“Although I am a native of Maine, I like the open space out there,” he said. “I like the idea that you can drive all day and still be in Nevada. I like seeing signs that say ‘No Gas, No Water – 100 miles.’ The Pony Express is the story of a wonderful American tall tale, like Paul Revere’s ride. It’s anchored in fact but layered with 150 years of embellishment.”

Corbett’s wry style fits his affection for classic American satirists like Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken. He loves a good yarn, preferably about a true local eccentric, that is well told in person or in print. Thus, he is concerned about the steady decline of quality, hometown newspapers in the modern media business.

“A lot of things said to be journalism today aren’t,” said Corbett. “It’s mostly infotainment, insults and mentally disturbed people yowling on the radio. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not journalism.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Journalism isn’t as pure as the driven snow. It’s gone through good and bad cycles in history. What’s really disturbing to me is the homogenization of the news product and the rise of newspaper chains. It’s two all-beef patties and special sauce that are the same in Spokane as Sarasota.”

Beyond advice to be wary of these trends, Corbett instructs his students to hone their news writing fundamentals by becoming involved with The Retriever Weekly.

“My teaching methods are simple,” he said. “I encourage them to read a newspaper – I’m often amazed by how few young people read newspapers today. You learn by doing, it’s like cake baking. The first few are inedible, but eventually, you get better. Employers usually prefer that you’ve made your rookie mistakes at a student paper before you go out and look for a job.”

Corbett is highly optimistic about the future of the English department and UMBC as the University gets ready to celebrate its 40th anniversary this fall.

“When I came to Baltimore, UMBC was only 14 years old,” Corbett said. “It was regarded as little more than a community college and not a very big one. I am amazed at how fast UMBC has taken off and how our faculty and students continue to prove naysayers wrong.”

(7/24/06)

 

 

 

Pedaling for a Cause

The summer’s rainstorms and blazing heat will not deter junior Mauria Uhlik and senior Peter Cailloux from climbing on their bikes for 4,000-mile cross-country journeys to raise money and bring awareness to two worthy causes.

Uhlik, a psychology major with a concentration in biopsychology, is riding in Habitat for Humanity’s Habitat Bike Challenge (HBC), which seeks to help end housing poverty by raising proceeds to finance the construction of five homes for the Greater New Haven affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. More than 90 college students from schools across the country will raise $4,000 each for Habitat before beginning the nine-week Challenge, which begins May 27.

Of the three bicycle routes the riders may take, Uhlik will travel HBC South, which starts in New Haven and finishes in San Francisco. For four of the six days they spend on the road, the will also work at local Habitat for Humanity construction sites or host an information session at a town meeting or community gathering.

Cailloux, a mechanical engineering major, is participating in Push America’s Journey of Hope, a bicycle challenge that raises funds for and awareness on behalf of people with disabilities. Journey of Hope, sponsored by Pi Kappa Phi, of which Cailloux is a member, is comprised of 80 Pi Kappa Phi brothers with their own fundraising goals.

With three routes (North, South and Trans America), the trek begins on June 11 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, and the teams arrive in Washington, D.C. on August 12. After each day’s ride, the teams will participate in outreach events either performing Kids on the Block puppet shows or making friendship visits.

Previous participation in community service projects and awareness of social issues inspired Uhlik and Cailloux to sign up for the bicycle journeys. Uhlik, who has done volunteer work for people with disabilities and is an active member of UMBC’s Habitat for Humanity club, said the lack of affordable housing prompted her to enter Habitat’s bike challenge.

“Affordable housing should not be out of reach for anyone,” said Uhlik. “No one should have to worry about housing. They should be able to come home and know it’s their home.”

Cailloux has volunteered for many of his fraternity’s service projects such as Give a Push or GAP. Usually as a weekend project, the fraternity brothers travel to local campgrounds, building handicap accessible playgrounds, painting facilities and spending time with the campers.

For more information, visit the Habitat Bike Challenge and Journey of Hope’s Web sites.

(5/16/06)

 

 

Grant to Provide Multidisciplinary Training for 20 PhD Students Over 5 Years

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded UMBC a $2.9 million grant to establish a new doctoral student training program in “Water in the Urban Environment.”

The NSF funding, part of a highly competitive and nationally prestigious Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, will provide 20 Ph.D. students with annual stipends plus assistance with tuition and fees as UMBC recruits and trains teams of graduate students in the ecology, economics, engineering, public health and policy impacts of urbanization on the Chesapeake Bay region’s water resources.

The “Water in the Urban Environment” Ph.D. training program will involve 32 faculty members from nine UMBC departments and six partner institutions. Like all IGERT programs, the UMBC training will emphasize an interdisciplinary team approach for Ph.D. students. The program includes internships in industry, government, and non-governmental organizations.

“The NSF IGERT program is nationally recognized as a mark of academic excellence,” said Claire Welty, director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education at UMBC. “This grant puts UMBC’s environmental programs on the national map in graduate environmental education and offers Marylanders a superb environmental educational opportunity right in their own back yard.”

According to Welty, “We’ve already recruited four outstanding students for the Fall 2006 semester– from North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- and will recruit an additional five for fall 2007,”

The program takes advantage of UMBC’s longtime research partnerships with public agencies, nonprofits, and private consultants in the field of urban environmental and hydrology studies, as well as the proximity of Baltimore to the Chesapeake Bay. UMBC is home of the field headquarters of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of two urban sites in the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research network. In June, UMBC broke ground for the US Geological Survey’s Maryland/Delaware/District of Columbia Water Science Center new home at bwtech@UMBC, the university’s on-campus research and technology park.

The UMBC program is one of approximately 20 new IGERT awards granted this year by the NSF. For more information on the NSF’s IGERT programs, visit www.igert.org.

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Researchers, Officials
to Mark Site of Tech Park’s 3rd Building Thursday

UMBC celebrates a milestone for science in the state’s public interest Thursday as it breaks ground for the new home of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Maryland-Delaware-Washington, D.C. Water Science Center at bwtech@UMBC, the University’s on-campus research and technology park.

Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, and other federal, state and local government officials will join UMBC and USGS environmental scientists at 5523 Research Park Drive, the future site of the one-story, 24,000 square-foot facility for a groundbreaking ceremony starting at 11:30 am.

Construction of the USGS building is scheduled to begin later this month. The real estate development firm Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) is managing construction of both the USGS building and a 110,000 square-foot, four-story, multi-tenant building at bwtech@UMBC, the park’s fourth of five planned buildings.

The USGS center employs over 60 scientists and support staff, who are expected to strengthen collaborative work with UMBC and U.S. Forest Service scientists who monitor the ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the health of the region’s water supply, rivers and streams.

The USGS’s decision to move from its previous location in White Marsh was strongly influenced by the longtime research partnership between USGS and UMBC’s Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, Center for Urban and Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the U.S. Forest Service and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.

According to UMBC and USGS officials, the move will give USGS scientists easier access to student employees, labs, scientific instruments, and university researchers. It is expected that UMBC science and engineering students will benefit from on-campus opportunities to combine classroom training with hands-on research experience.

UMBC’s formal connection with USGS goes back to 1997, the beginning of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a National Science Foundation-funded Long-Term Ecological Research Project whose field headquarters are located on the UMBC campus. BES, which was renewed for another six-year term in 2004, makes Baltimore’s streams, rivers and water quality among the most highly monitored in the country thanks in large part to an extensive network of USGS equipment and personnel.

The USGS building is the latest in the progress of bwtech@UMBC, Maryland's first university research park, and the only research and development park in Baltimore County. The 41-acre park's first building was completed in 2001 and is occupied by RWD Technologies. The second building was completed in 2004 and is fully leased to 15 entities. The park’s first two buildings were sold to Merritt Properties for $22.5 million in December, 2005.

UMBC and Wyeth Research have formed a three-year, multi-level partnership. The partnership will include graduate fellowships for talented students conducting research in fields of joint interest to UMBC faculty and Wyeth scientists and a three-year commitment to support UMBC’s annual life science symposium as a Gold-Level sponsor.

Wyeth’s sponsorship of the symposium, A Look Ahead: Futures in Biomedical Research, will provide direct support for the Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at UMBC. The annual life science symposium features nationally recognized speakers, promotes the research of UMBC students, and attracts hundreds of scientists, educators and biotechnology business leaders.

“Wyeth’s contribution to UMBC is outstanding. They are an ideal partner for UMBC in the life sciences, demonstrating a strong commitment to scientific excellence, diversity and higher education,” said Dr. Geoffrey Summers, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

The students selected for the two-year fellowships will be designated Wyeth Fellows and will receive an annual stipend and mentoring support from an industry scientist at Wyeth research.

The 2006 Wyeth Fellowship will be awarded to a rising, second- or third-year Ph.D candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Each Wyeth Fellow will have the opportunity to present his or her research findings to a group of senior scientists at Wyeth Research.

“We are very pleased to be working with UMBC at this new level,” said Dr. Parimal Desai, Vice President, Analytical & Quality Sciences at Wyeth. “UMBC produces some of our most promising new scientists. Our experiences working with UMBC students and faculty have been excellent.”

UMBC and Wyeth have established a steering committee to identify promising areas of research and expand collaborative relationships between Wyeth scientists and UMBC faculty and students. The steering committee will build on the momentum of Wyeth’s active recruiting of UMBC students for internships and full-time positions.

Wyeth, headquartered in Madison, NJ, is a global leader in pharmaceuticals, consumer health care products and animal health care products. The company is a leader in the discovery, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, biotechnology products and non-prescription medicines that improve the quality of life people worldwide. With research and development programs focused on small molecules, vaccines and biotechnology, Wyeth is exploring more than 60 new therapies for medical conditions such as diabetes, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

UMBC is a mid-sized, public research university located between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. UMBC is a major center for cutting-edge research in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. The campus is home to more than 20 research centers and institutes.

UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences includes the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematics and Statistics, and Physics. These four departments administer close to half of the Ph.D. programs at UMBC. The College has more than 100 full time faculty members, and includes approximately 1500 students in 7 undergraduate programs and 280 students in 13 graduate programs. Research expenditures currently top $13M per year.

For inquiries directly to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals:
Gerald Burr
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
Office: 484-865-5138
Cell: 484-686-6998
Email: burrg@wyeth.com

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded a $2.2 million teaching grant to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to further develop the HHMI Scholars Program, a science education initiative that focuses on students from diverse backgrounds.

The HHMI Scholars Program provides a summer “bridge” structure that helps freshmen make a smooth college transition. During their freshman year, Hughes Scholars rotate through several labs and eventually choose a "home" laboratory in which they will do long-term research. The summer before their sophomore year, they start working in that lab. Scholars also complete at least one summer of research with an HHMI investigator elsewhere in the country, usually before their junior year. Each scholar also has the option of spending his or her junior year as an exchange student in the lab of another HHMI investigator.

Hughes Scholars also provide math and science tutoring for elementary and high school students in Baltimore to inspire the next generation of science majors. They might also tutor fellow UMBC undergraduates.

UMBC is one of 50 universities in the nation to receive an HHMI grant in this round of funding. The first UMBC Hughes Scholars supported by an undergraduate science education grant from HHMI graduated from UMBC in 2005. All three students have gone on to Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. programs at Stanford University, The Johns Hopkins University, and Case Western Reserve University. Five additional students recently graduated and all have been accepted into a Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D. or M.D. program at Baylor College of Medicine, University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, and Cornell University.

"They're not just getting into graduate programs, they’re getting into the very best programs," said Michael Summers, the only HHMI investigator at a Maryland public university and director of the Hughes Scholar Program at UMBC. Of 25 Hughes Scholars so far, 23 are African American. While many Hughes Scholars are from Maryland, students also come to the program from as far away as California, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Hughes Scholars will interact with students who are in the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, a program open to high-achieving high school seniors with an interest in pursuing doctoral study in the sciences or engineering and advancing minorities in the sciences and related fields.

“With this support, some of the brightest young students who are interested in biomedical research and issues of diversity will have the opportunity to focus on their studies and research while undergraduates and work with some of the nation’s best biomedical researchers,” Summers said.

Hughes Scholars are selected as incoming freshmen. An HHMI grant provides funds for summer research and travel to scientific meetings. The grant also covers tuition and room and board for their first two years of college. Tuition, room and board are covered for the students' junior and senior years through a federal grant.

Before classes start, Hughes Scholars attend a summer program to familiarize themselves with the campus and the research being done at UMBC.

“Summer bridge programs—a component of several of the new grants—are particularly important in helping minority students make a successful transition to the world of the research university,” said Peter J. Bruns, HHMI vice president for grants and special programs. “Individualized mentoring and early research experiences with working scientists also are vital components of a university education that prepares undergraduates for graduate school and careers in science. The universities want to offer their students these opportunities, and HHMI is pleased to help them do so.”

In selecting recipients of the new grants, HHMI reviewed 158 applications. A panel composed of leading scientists and educators, including HHMI professors and an invited 214 HHMI investigators, reviewed the applications.

“We believe it is vital to bring fresh perspectives to the teaching of established scientific disciplines and to develop novel courses in emerging areas, such as computational biology, genomics, and bio-imaging, said Thomas R. Cech, HHMI president. “Our grantee universities are providing hands-on research experiences to help prepare undergraduates, including women and minorities underrepresented in the sciences, for graduate studies and for careers in biomedical research, medicine, and science education.”

A nonprofit medical research organization, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute was established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist. The Institute, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, is one of the largest philanthropies in the world, with an endowment of $14.8 billion at the close of its 2005 fiscal year. HHMI spent $483 million in support of biomedical research and $80 million for support of a variety of science education and other grants programs in fiscal 2005.

A research effort led by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County has found a comet-like ball of gas over a billion times the mass of the sun hurling through a distant galaxy cluster over 500 miles per second. This colossal "ball of fire" is by far the largest object of this kind ever identified.

Dr. Alexis Finoguenov and Prof. Mark Henriksen of the UMBC Department of Physics and visiting UMBC scientist Dr. Francesco Miniati discovered the gas ball with a European X-ray satellite called XMM-Newton.

The gas ball is about three million light years across, or about five billion times the size of our solar system. It appears from our perspective as a circular X-ray glow with a comet-like tail nearly half the size of the moon. This observation is described in the Astrophysical Journal.

"The size and velocity of this gas ball is truly fantastic," said Finoguenov, who is an adjunct assistant professor of physics at UMBC and an associated scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extra-Terrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany. "This is likely a massive building block being delivered to one of the largest assembly of galaxies we know."

The gas ball is in a galaxy cluster called Abell 3266, millions of light years from Earth, thus posing absolutely no danger to our solar system. Abell 3266 contains hundreds of galaxies and great amounts of hot gas that is nearly a hundred million degrees. Both the cluster gas and the giant gas ball are held together by the gravitational attraction of unseen dark matter.

"What interests astronomers is not just the size of the gas ball but the role it plays in the formation and evolution of structure in the universe," said Miniati, who worked on this data at UMBC while visiting from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.

Abell cluster 3266 is part of the Horologium-Reticulum super-cluster and is one of the most massive galaxy clusters in the southern sky. It is still actively growing in size, as indicated by the gas ball, and will become one of the largest mass concentrations in the nearby universe.

Using XMM-Newton data, the science team produced an entropy map, which is a thermodynamical property that allows for the separation of the cold and dense gas of the comet from the hotter and more rarefied gas of the cluster. This is based on X-ray spectra. The data show with remarkable detail the process of gas being stripped from the comet's core and forming a large tail containing lumps of colder and denser gas. The researchers estimate that a sun's worth of mass is lost every hour.

"In Abell 3266 we are seeing structure formation in action," said Henriksen. "Dark matter is the gravitational glue holding the gas ball together. But as it races through the galaxy cluster, a tug-of-war ensues where the galaxy cluster eventually wins, stripping off and dispersing gas that perhaps one day will seed star and galaxy growth within the cluster."

XMM-Newton was built by and is operated by the European Space Agency.

For images and more information about the result, refer to http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMWD1AATME_index_0.html.

For a directory of high-resolution images, refer to: http://universe.nasa.gov/press/xmm

Special Thanks to Christopher Wanjek at NASA-Goddard News for this story.