Galaxy like Milky Way detected in early universe could challenge our cosmic knowledge
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Scientists have discovered a galaxy with a “bar” in the early universe. This could mean that they will have to rewrite their understanding of how galaxies develop.
Until recently, it was believed that barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way cannot be observed before the universe reached half of its current age of 13.8 billion years. But now, scientists have used the James Webb Space Telescope to discover the most distant barred spiral galaxy to date.
The massive distances in space work differently from how you probably imagine them. When a celestial object is a very far away, we observe it as it was in the past because light takes a lot of time to reach us. For example, if we are observing something a light-year away, we see it as it was a year ago because the light from it took a year to reach us.
The new galaxy that the scientists discovered, called ceers-2112, formed soon after the big bang. Ceers-2112 has a bar at its centre. Galactic bars are structures made of stars within galaxies. While it is possible to find bars in non-spiral galaxies, that is quite rare as they are more common in spiral galaxies.
“Nearly all bars are found in spiral galaxies. The bar in ceers-2112 suggests that galaxies matured and became ordered much faster than we previously thought, which means some aspects of our theories of galaxy formation and evolution need revisions,” said Alexander de la Vega,” co-author of a research paper published in the journal Nature, in a press statement.
According to de la Vega, the bar in ceers-2112 means that galaxies can mature and become ordered much faster than scientists believed to be true. This means that some theories of galaxy formation and evolution will need to be revised.
Astronomers’ previous understanding led them to believe that it took many billion years for galaxies to become ordered enough to turn into barred galaxies. But the discovery of ceers-2112 upends than notion. It shows that bars can form in a fraction of that time, in one billion years or even less. Galactic bars are through to form in spiral galaxies with stars that rotate in an ordered fashion.
Scientists have discovered a galaxy with a “bar” in the early universe. This could mean that they will have to rewrite their understanding of how galaxies develop. Until recently, it was believed that barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way cannot be observed before the universe reached half of its…
Scientists have discovered a galaxy with a “bar” in the early universe. This could mean that they will have to rewrite their understanding of how galaxies develop. Until recently, it was believed that barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way cannot be observed before the universe reached half of its…