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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

UMass Amherst Astronomers Report Most ‘Outrageously’ Luminous Galaxies Ever Observed [umass.edu]:

Astronomers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have observed the most luminous galaxies ever seen in the Universe, objects so bright that established descriptors such as “ultra-” and “hyper-luminous” used to describe previously brightest known galaxies don’t even come close. Lead author and undergraduate Kevin Harrington says, “We’ve taken to calling them ‘outrageously luminous’ among ourselves, because there is no scientific term to apply.”

Details appear in the current early online edition of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

[...] Harrington explains that in categorizing luminous sources, astronomers call an infrared galaxy “ultra-luminous” when it has a rating of about 1 trillion solar luminosities, and that rises to about 10 trillion solar luminosities at the “hyper-luminous” level. Beyond that, for the 100 trillion solar luminosities range of the new objects, “we don’t even have a name,” he says.

[...] They also conducted analyses to show that the galaxies’ brightness is most likely due solely to their amazingly high rate of star formation. “The Milky Way produces a few solar masses of stars per year, and these objects look like they [are] forming one star every hour,” [UMass astronomy professor Min] Yun says. Harrington adds, “We still don’t know how many tens to hundreds of solar masses of gas can be converted into stars so efficiently in these objects, and studying these objects might help us to find out. (Emphasis added.)

Obviously, the next step after ultra-, hyper-, and outrageously-bright would be ludicrously-bright. Right?

An abstract [arxiv.org] and full article (pdf) [arxiv.org] are available.

Original Submission