'Outrageously' Bright Galaxies Discovered

Super bright galaxies in the observable universe have been recently discovered by astronomers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst--so bright that no scientific term has yet been coined to describe it.

These "outrageously" bright galaxies have such high intensity of brightness that they have outshined the galaxies previously described as "ultra-" and "hyper-luminous" galaxies, Phys.org website reported.

The group of undergraduate astronomers used a 50-meter diameter Large Millimeter Telescope, or LMT, which is the largest and most sensitive instrument used to study star formations.

LMT is jointly operated by UMass Amherst and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, óptica y Electrónica. It is strategically located 15,000 feet above sea level on top of the Sierra Negra, an extinct volcano in Mexico.

According to the lead author of the scientific paper, Kevin Harrington, the galaxies are described as "outrageously luminous" among his team for the lack of a precise scientific term that would describe the brightness of the galaxies.

According to a similar report by Science Daily, Harrington explained that astronomers categorize an infrared galaxy as "ultra-luminous," if it has the equivalent luminosity of about 1 trillion suns. When galactic luminosity reaches the equivalent of 10 trillion suns, it is classified as "hyper-luminous."

But there is currently no name for a galaxy that has beyond 100 trillion solar luminosity.

Professor Min Yun, the team supervisor, said the newly discovered luminous galaxies were not expected to be possible based on theoretical predictions. He said these galaxies are too large and bright, well beyond the theoretical limits.

Professor Yun related in a university press release that the newly discovered galaxies may not actually be as big as they may appear because of gravitational lensing effect.

Nonetheless, even if the gravitational lensing effect is factored out, the luminosities of the galaxies are still very impressive. The new discovery is expected to give new insights on how galaxies are formed.

Based on data analyses, the astronomers concluded that the luminosity can be directly attributed to the rate of star formations in the observed galaxies.