Image Photo: In this image, the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope gets a transient glimpse of the numerous armored structures that sweep around this shattered spiral galaxy, known as NGC 2608. Except as a somewhat extended, smaller version of our Milky Way.
(ESA / Hubble / NASA, A. Riess et al)
In the early 1920s, the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that our galaxy – the Milky Way – was not the only galaxy in the Universe. In the following decades, we realized that there are actually countless galaxies in our universe. Now, for the first time, astronomers have a radiance similar to our Milky Way with a close resemblance.
The newly discovered galaxy named SPT0418-47 is estimated to be about 12 billion light-years from our galaxy, which means that it is so far away that its light takes nearly 12 billion years to travel and reach us. The newly discovered galaxy was formed when the universe was just 10% of its current age – about 1.4 billion years old.
A galaxy is made up of gas, dust and billions of stars – held together by gravity. The Milky Way galaxy – which contains the entire solar system – is about 13.51 billion years old and appears in a spiral shape.
Surprisingly uncaoatic
Astronomers have hitherto believed that in the early years of the universe most galaxies formed were unstable and turbulent. This belief arises from the idea that during the early universe when the celestial objects were not fully formed, galaxies were also in the process. Therefore, astronomers hypothesize that galaxies are chaotic, lacking structures of adult galaxies.
Contrary to many people’s beliefs, this newly discovered galaxy was ‘surprisingly uncoopy’. “This result represents a breakthrough in the field of galaxy formation, showing that the structures we observe in nearby spiral galaxies and in our Milky Way were 12 billion years ago,” said Francesca Rizzo, PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, who led the research.
Astronomers using ALMA, of which ESO is a partner, have shown an extremely distant galaxy that looks surprisingly similar to our Milky Way. The galaxy, SPT0418-47, is gravitationally lensed by a nearby galaxy, appearing in the sky as an almost perfect ring of light.
(ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO), Rizzo et al.)
Astronomers have identified SPT0418-47 as a dynamically cold but very star-forming rotating disk in a galaxy. Compared to the Milky Way, it has no spiral arm. However, the galaxy’s rotating disk and a mound – a large group of stars wrapped together around the galactic center – were among the similar features as our Milky Way. Moreover, researchers from the study say that this is the first time a bulge has been detected in galaxies from the early universe.
How the galaxy was detected
This breakthrough discovery comes from the Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) of telescopes, based in Chile. In addition to the powerful ALMA telescope, astronomers used the technique of gravity lensing to spot the galaxy. Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon in which the light emitted by a distant galaxy passes through a massive object and the gravitational force of that object bends or disturbs the light, causing it to appear magnified. This allowed ALMA to capture the galaxy’s never seen before.
The Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile has 66 high precision antennas.
(NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA)
Like the statement, the distant galaxy appeared as the near-perfect light ring around the galaxy in the vicinity when they were taken prisoner. The statement added, the research team reconstructed the true shape of the distant galaxy and the motion of its gas from the ALMA data using a new model for model computer.
The more details and features of the distant galaxy are yet to be identified, as it lies very far away in the universe. Therefore, it becomes impossible for even the most powerful telescopes to identify the galaxy, because it appears small and volatile.
The discovery is important for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Moreover, it can also shed light on the early years of the Universe.
The study was published in the journal Nature earlier this week and can be accessed here.
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