Astrologists have noticed a galaxy that has been unchanged for 7 billion years – which is rare in the universe – a glimpse of cosmic history and adds to a mysterious group of things called antiquities or “fossil galaxies”.
These space homosexuals are galaxies, after an initial stage of the composition of intense stars, escaping from their expected evolutionary path. While other galaxies expand and merge with each other, fossil galaxies remain almost inactive. Such as the heavenly time capsules, they provide a snapshot in the ancient universe and allow astronomers to examine the mechanism of forming the galaxy.
The newly discovered fossil galaxy – named Kids J0842+0059 – 3 billion light years From the Earth, which makes it the most dimension and the first of its kind that was observed outside the local universe, which is the closer space area to Earth that is about one billion light years in the half of the diameter. It was found by a team of astronomers led by the Italian National Institute of Astronomical Physics (INAF), using high -resolution imaging of the large microscope in Arizona.
It was noted that the Galaxy Kids J0842+0059 with a VLT scanning telescope, with a higher accuracy with the large microscopic telescope in Arizona (right). – C. Tortora/Inspire/VST/ESO/LBT
“The galaxies of the remains were not merged, only by chance, with any other galaxy, remaining more or less sound over time,” said Crescenzo Tortora, INAF researcher and the first author of a study on the result. Published May 31 in the magazine the monthly notifications of the Royal Astronomical Society. “These things are very rare because over time, the possibility of integration with another galaxy increases naturally.”
Very compressed, very huge
Astronomers believe that the most massive galaxies are formed in two phases, according to the study of the co -author Shera Spinilo, a researcher at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
She said, “First, there is an early explosion of stars formation, rapid activity and very violence.” “We end up with something compressed and very small, the predecessor of these effects.”
She added that the second stage is a long -term process during which galaxies that come close to interaction and integrate and eat each other, which causes a very significant change in their forms, sizes and stars groups. “We define the remains of an almost the second stage of this stage, after at least 75 % of its mass in the first stage,” explained Spinello.
The Telltale feature in fossil galaxies is very old, compressed and dense, more than our galaxy.
She said: “It contains (billions) of huge stars like the sun and they do not form any new stars – they do nothing mainly, and they are fossil records of the very old universe.” “They were formed when the universe was really small. After that, for some of the reasons we did not understand frankly, they did not interact. They did not merge with other systems. They evolved without hindrance, and they remained as they were.”
Michel Capeli, professor of astronomical physics at Oxford University, who did not participate in the study, said that fossil galaxies are very important because they are directly related to the residents of the huge galaxy that had been present in billions of years. “As live hole,” they avoided the mergers and the chaotic growth witnessed by most other huge galaxies. Its study allows us to rebuild the conditions of the universe in its cradle and understand the initial explosions to form stars. “
He added that what caused these galaxies to the sudden formation of stars is a major question. “Evidence from both local and (distant) notes indicate that the reactions from super black holes may be responsible,” Capeli said. “These black holes can produce strong winds expelling or heating the gas in the galaxy, which prevents further formation of stars. However, this is still an active field of research.”
Undoubted future
Scientists first identified children J0842+0059 in 2018 using Telescope VLT Wip (VST) at the Great Observatory in Chile. This note revealed that the galaxy was full of the old stars, but it only gave appreciation of its bloc and its size, so a more detailed note was needed to confirm that it was residue. The large microscope used for this confirmation can make very sharp images due to its ability to compensate for the disorder in the atmosphere, which may make it difficult on earth telescopes focus on distant things.
The adaptive secondary mirrors of the large microscope telescope correcting visual abnormalities and making the discovery of fossil galaxy possible. – Renato Serisola
The newly found fossil galaxy joins only a group of a handful of others who were observed at the same level of details, and the most called NGC 1277 – was the most important of NGC 1277 – certain Through Hubble Space Telescope in 2018.
NGC 1277 and Kids J0842+0059 are very similar, but the latter is far from the ground. The definition of the fossil galaxy is almost perfectly suitable, according to Spiniello.
She said: “This is what we call extremist residue, because almost everything, or 99.5 % of its stars have been incredibly early in cosmic time, and the galaxy did nothing at all after that.”
Spiniello added that the fossil galaxy has stars and planets, just like our galaxy, but it is more intense. “There will be many stars in a small small size, so it will be very crowded,” she said. “It will be difficult to find solar systems like us, with many of the planets around them, just because of the chances of getting accompanying stars interfering close.”
Kids J0842+0059 looks to observers like 3 billion years ago, because this is the time that the light coming from the galaxy takes to reach the ground. Spinilo assumed that residues will continue to remain as they are forever, but scientists cannot be sure because they still do not know what prevents him from interacting with other galaxies.
“There must be something that prevents them from integrating, but without knowing what we can really expect what will happen in the future,” Spinilo said.
One millions
من الصعب للغاية تحديد المجرات الأحفورية وتأكيد طبيعتها ، جزئياً لأنها نادرة وصغيرة نسبيًا مقارنة بالمجرات العادية مثل درب التبانة ، وفقًا لسيباستيان كومرون ، عالم فلك خارجي في Universidad de La Laguna و Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias في Spain. He said that the confirmation of a remote residue is a balance of research strategies used to identify these modern things and tools.
“Grooves are mysterious residue,” added Comerón, who did not participate in the study, added in an email. “The fact that some galaxies are at the present time the effects of the first large galaxies that need to be interpreted.”
Astronomers cannot say certainty how much effects are, but Spiniello’s capabilities may be “one in millions” among all galaxies in the universe. the Inspire Spinilo said that Project – which aims to find fossil galaxies and their book, was born in the discovery of children J0842+0059 – already selected dozens of other candidates who are in the pipeline for more scrutiny.
New tools can make this research more effective. Both Spiniello and Turtora are enthusiastic for Euclid, the European Space Agency telescope, which was launched in 2023 with a goal from Explore the dark matter Dark energy that will also be useful to monitor fossil galaxies.
“It will be a transformative Euclid,” said Spiniello. The idea is to find all galaxies in a patch of the sky, then isolate all that compact.
Capeli said in an email that the Relat Galaxy Kids J0842+0059 assertion is a remarkable achievement, and the future of this field is very promising. “With strong new telescopes such as James Webb and Euclid (whose first photos were produced in just a few months), and on the ground with advanced adaptive optics, we can expect to find more of these effects and study them at greater distances.”
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account on Cnn.com
