## A Cosmic Enigma from the Dawn of Time A team of astronomers has discovered an ancient gas reservoir, dating back over 12 billion years, within a primordial galaxy cluster called SPT2349-56. The temperature of this gas is inexplicably high, reaching values similar to those of the Sun's core, a finding that challenges current cosmological theories. ## Unexpected Temperatures in the Young Universe According to models, the gas present in primordial galaxy clusters should be significantly cooler than that observed in modern galaxies, heated over billions of years by gravitational interactions. The discovery of SPT2349-56, with its extremely hot gas, challenges this view. Dazhi Zhou, who led the study, expressed surprise at the results, emphasizing how the temperature and abundance of the hot gas exceed theoretical expectations for a cluster in the process of formation. This anomaly forces technicians to reconsider models of cosmic structure evolution. ## Observations and Future Implications The observations were made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, which allowed the temperature of the intergalactic gas to be measured by detecting the distortion it causes on the oldest light in the universe. The source of this heat remains unknown, but it is hypothesized that it may be related to the high activity of the cluster, characterized by a star formation rate 5,000 times higher than that of the Milky Way and powerful jets of matter emitted from galactic cores. Further observations will be needed to confirm whether SPT2349-56 represents an exception or whether super-hot gas is more common in primordial clusters than previously thought. This discovery adds to recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, which have revealed massive galaxies in even more remote epochs, opening new perspectives on the formation of the universe. ## A Paradigm Shift According to Zhou, these discoveries suggest that galaxy formation processes in the early universe were more violent and energetic than previously hypothesized. Primordial galaxies would have had a greater impact on their surroundings, shaping the universe in ways that are still not fully understood.