Planck early results. XXVI. Detection with Planck and confirmation by XMM-Newton of PLCK G266.6-27.3, an exceptionally X-ray luminous and massive galaxy cluster at z ~ 1

We present first results on PLCKG266.6-27.3, a galaxy cluster candidate detected at a signal-to-noise ratio of 5 in the Planck All Sky survey. An XMM-Newton validation observation has allowed us to confirm that the candidate isa bona fide galaxy cluster. With these X-ray data we measure an accurate redshift, z = 0.94 ± 0.02, and estimate the cluster mass to be M₅₀₀ = (7.8 ± 0.8) × 10¹⁴ M_⊙. PLCKG266.6-27.3 is an exceptional system: its luminosity of L_X [0.5-2.0 keV] = (1.4 ± 0.05) × 10⁴⁵ erg s^-1 equals that of the two most luminous known clusters in the z > 0.5 universe, and it is one of the most massive clusters at z ~ 1. Moreover, unlike the majority of high-redshift clusters, PLCKG266.6-27.3 appears to be highly relaxed. This observation confirms Planck's capability of detecting high-redshift, high-mass clusters, and opens the way to the systematic study of population evolution in the exponential tail of the mass function.

Corresponding author: M. Arnaud, monique.arnaud@cea.fr