Astronomers have located the oldest galaxy ever discovered with growth contrary to the pattern of other mapped systems: from the inside out .
They used the James Webb Telescope to record images of the cluster that was formed just 700 million years after the Big Bang — a period considered recent for the Universe, which is 13.8 billion years old.
The galaxy found by scientists has characteristics ripe for its early existence, which defies known patterns for system formation.
According to the research results, published in Nature Astronomy magazine this Friday (11), the shape of the newly discovered galaxy resembles the formation of a city, as it has a concentration of stars in its core — the center of the city — and becomes less dense towards the edges — which it would be the galactic suburbs.
It was also possible to observe that its tendency is to spread, with the formation of stars accelerating in peripheral areas.
“As the galaxy grows and star formation increases, it’s a bit like a figure skater spinning: as the skater pulls his arms in, he gains momentum and spins faster and faster. The galaxies are somewhat similar, with gas accumulating later from increasingly greater distances, accelerating them, which is why they often form spiral or disk shapes,” explained co-lead author Dr. Sandro Tacchella from the Cavendish Laboratory. , from Cambridge.
For comparison, scientists explain that this new galaxy — which is a hundred times smaller than ours — doubles its stellar mass on the outskirts every 10 million years, while the Milky Way only every 10 billion years.
The discovery challenged known patterns for galaxy growth, which were known in two ways. In the first known mode, systems attract or accumulate gas to create stars and, in the second, they merge with smaller ones. However, the news raised hypotheses about the early Universe.
“Were they all like this? We are now analyzing similar data from other galaxies. By looking at different systems over cosmic time, we may be able to reconstruct the growth cycle and demonstrate how galaxies grow to their final size today,” Tacchella reported.
The observation was only possible thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, a tool resulting from the partnership between NASA (United States Space Agency) and ESA (European Space Agency) — the most up-to-date tool we have in relation to space observation.
His investigation begins with the first lights after the Big Bang and goes until the emergence of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets, like Earth.
In this research, for example, astronomers used the telescope to record light emitted by the galaxy at different wavelengths and estimate the number of younger stars compared to older stars — converting this into an estimate of stellar mass and formation rate. of stars
“We have had a lot of great data over the last ten million years and for galaxies in our corner of the universe, but now with Webb, we can get observational data from billions of years ago, exploring the first billion years of cosmic history, which opens up a series of new questions,” said Tacchella.
See historic images from the James Webb Telescope
This content was originally published in Astronomers find oldest galaxy growing “in reverse” on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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