The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey: MOO J1142+1527, A 10$^{15}$ M$_\odot$ Galaxy Cluster at z=1.19

TL;DR

This paper confirms the existence of a very massive galaxy cluster at redshift 1.19, detected via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, and discusses its significance in the context of cosmological models and ongoing surveys.

Contribution

The paper reports the discovery and confirmation of the most massive galaxy cluster known at z>1.15, using SZ measurements, and highlights its importance for cosmological studies.

Findings

MOO J1142+1527 has a mass of approximately 1.1×10^15 M_sun.

The cluster is the most massive at z>1.15 and second at z>1.

It is among the top 5 most massive clusters expected at z≥1.19 in the universe.

Abstract

We present confirmation of the cluster MOO J1142+1527, a massive galaxy cluster discovered as part of the Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey. The cluster is confirmed to lie at $z=1.19$, and using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy we robustly detect the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) decrement at 13.2$\sigma$. The SZ data imply a mass of $\mathrm{M}_{200m}=(1.1\pm0.2)\times10^{15}$ $\mathrm{M}_\odot$, making MOO J1142+1527 the most massive galaxy cluster known at $z>1.15$ and the second most massive cluster known at $z>1$. For a standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology it is further expected to be one of the $\sim 5$ most massive clusters expected to exist at $z\ge1.19$ over the entire sky. Our ongoing Spitzer program targeting $\sim1750$ additional candidate clusters will identify comparably rich galaxy clusters over the full extragalactic sky.