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Astronomers have made the surprising discovery of oxygen and elements such as heavy metals in the distant known galaxy. The galaxy is 13.4 billion light years away, which means that it formed in the early days of the universe.
Astronomers believe that the Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago.
The unusually large, shining remote galaxy, called Jades-GS-Z14-0, was initially detected in January 2024 with the James Webb world space telescope, which observes the universe in the infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. The space observatory can remain effectively in the period until the beginning of a mysterious era called Cosmic Dawn or in the first hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the first galaxies were born, because it can observe light that has traveled over the room to earth for over billions.
The light of Jades-GS-Z14-0 took 13.4 billion years until our corner of the universe has reached, and as far as webb and other observatories such as Alma or Atacama Large millimeter/submillimeter Array see the galaxy in Chiles Atacama desert, as was only about 300 million years old.
When Astronomers used Alma to pursue the first observations of WebB, they were stunned to find the presence of oxygen and heavy metals, since their presence indicates that galaxies formed faster than expected in the early days of the Universe.
The results of the Alma detections were published on Thursday in separate studies in the Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy & Astrophysics.
“It is like finding a young person where they would only expect babies,” said Sander Schouws, leading author of the Astrophysical Journal Study and doctoral candidate at Leiden Observatory at Leiden University in the Netherlands in a statement. “The results show that the galaxy has formed very quickly and ripens quickly, which increases to growing evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than expected.”
The fact that Jades-GS-Z14-0 was loaded with heavy elements into question the astronomers how some of the earliest galaxies really-and how many more they find with Webb and Alma.
A light light leads to a surprise
Several aspects of Jades-GS-Z14-0, including its large size and brightness, have proven to be unexpected. When webb responded 700 away galaxies, it turned out that it was the third most common, although it is the farthest, said Schouws. However, it is expected that the oldest galaxies are smaller and dimmer, since the universe was much smaller at that time.
The concept of an artist shows how the universe could have looked like if it was less than 1 billion years old. The star formation consumed insatiable original hydrogen, which produces a variety of stars. – NASA/ESA/A. Schaller for STSCI
“In general, galaxies differ so early in the universe from the famous galaxies that we know from the beautiful pictures of Hubble and JWST,” said Schouws in an e -mail. “They are much more compact, rich in gas and messy/disorganized. The conditions are more extreme because many stars form quickly in a small volume.”
Galaxies usually start from huge gas clouds that collapse and rotate, and fill with young stars, which mostly consist of light elements such as helium and hydrogen. While the stars develop over time, they create heavier elements such as oxygen and metals that dispel in the entire galaxy when stars explode at the end of their lives. In return, the elements published by dying stars lead to the formation of more stars and the planets that they circle.
But nothing about Jades-GS-Z14-0 fits this model. Instead, the galaxy contains ten times more heavy elements than expected, according to the authors of the study.
“Such elements are produced by solid stars and the large amount of oxygen suggests that several generations of massive stars have already been born and died,” said Dr. Dr.
Stefano Carniani, assistant professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, and senior author of the Astronomy & Astrophysics Study, in an explanation. “In summary (Jades-GS-Z14-0), it is more mature than expected, and these results imply that the first generation of galaxies quickly put together its mass.”
Take a distance
By using Alma, the researchers were also able to confirm the removal of the originally measured galaxy with WebB and refine their measurements. Together, both telescopes can be used to examine the formation and development of the first galaxies, said Rychard Bouwens, Associate Professor at Leiden University and CO author of the study in the astrophysical journal.
“I was really surprised by this clear detection of oxygen in Jades-GS-Z14-0,” said Gergö Poping, a European astronomer in the southern observatory in the European Alma Regional Center. The popping did not take part in any study.
“It indicates that galaxies can form faster than before. This result shows the important role that Alma plays in the dissolution of the conditions under which the first galaxies have formed in our universe.”
While WebB can help identify extremely distant galaxies, Alma can examine the gas and dust they examined by finding the distant infrarotic light they broadcast, said Carniani. The study of such galaxies can help to shed light on the many remaining secrets of cosmic dawn, such as what happened shortly after the first start of the universe, and the identity of the first heavenly objects that appear.
The authors of the study believe that the early galaxies may have formed more stars, and stars more massive than expected, which would also affect the brightness of the galaxy as a whole.
“It’s like Burning Candles: You can have candles with a wide wick that has a bright flame (massive stars), or you can have candles that burn slowly and efficiently (normal stars),” said Schouws.
However, further observations are required to understand exactly what the researchers see, he said.
The team wants to determine whether the galaxy and its quick development are really unique or whether there is more to do in the early universe, since a single heavenly object is not sufficient to establish a new model of galaxy formation, said Carniani.
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