As of: March 15, 2024, 8:40 a.m
By: Teresa Toth
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With the “James Webb” telescope, researchers have discovered an undiscovered galaxy in the young cosmos.
She could be the oldest of her kind.
Cambridge – Astronomers have discovered a new galaxy: Using the “James Webb” telescope, the researchers examined the young cosmos and came across the previously undiscovered galaxy.
The special thing about it: The galaxy is said to be already dead - and possibly the oldest galaxy of its kind ever observed. Just last year, astronomers came across what is supposedly the oldest galaxy in the universe.
It is unclear to astronomers why star formation in the discovered galaxy abruptly stopped
Galaxies are made up of stars, gas clouds, dust, dark matter and planets linked together by gravity.
The newly discovered galaxy, named Jades-GS-Z7-01-QU, is thought to have existed when the universe was just 700 million years old.
At this time - 700 million years after the Big Bang - stars suddenly stopped forming in the galaxy in question, which is why it is also called a dead galaxy.
The amazing thing: The record was previously 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang.
The newly discovered galaxy is a lot older.
The researchers published the results in the English-language journal
Nature
.
The “James Webb” telescope has been providing impressive impressions from space since 2022.
Discovering a dead galaxy so early in the young cosmos surprised astronomers, as they themselves say.
It is unclear why star formation in Jades-GS-Z7-01-QU abruptly stopped.
A galaxy stops forming stars when a black hole forms
“The first few hundred million years of the universe were a very active phase in which many gas clouds collapsed and formed new stars,” says Tobias Looser from the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, lead author of the study, in a statement.
“Galaxies need a rich supply of gas to form new stars, and the early universe was like an all-you-can-eat buffet.” Co-author Dr.
Francesco D'Eugenio, also from the Kavli Institute of Cosmology, adds: "It's only later in the universe that we see galaxies stop forming stars, whether through a black hole or something else."
With NASA telescopes, astronomers are able to discover new galaxies.
© NASA/Esa/Hubble / Handout
Star formation in the newly discovered galaxy could have been stopped because it lacked gas.
A supermassive black hole or feedback from star formation can cause gas to be squeezed out of the galaxy, halting the formation of new stars.
However, a galaxy can also “starve” by star formation using up more gas than can be replenished with fresh gas.
Astronomers cannot yet say with certainty what the exact reason was in the case of the discovered dead galaxy.
According to the researchers, it is possible that stars were formed again in a later epoch.
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Astronomers continue to observe the dead galaxy
“To understand the early universe, we have previously used models based on the modern universe.
But now that we can see so much further into the past and observe that star formation in this galaxy has been extinguished so quickly, models based on the modern universe may need to be reconsidered," said Professor Roberto Maiolino, a co- Author of the study.
The dead galaxy will now be further observed because the “direct observation of quiet galaxies in the young universe is of immense importance for our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies,” emphasizes Looser.
Since light takes time to travel large distances in space, looking through a telescope is always a look into the past.
The further away a celestial body is from Earth, the further into the past one looks.
(tt)