'Impossible' galaxy resurfaces from 12 billion years ago

(NLDO) - The galaxy that a space telescope has just captured has upset the cosmological timeline that scientists have outlined.

According to Space.com, the world's most powerful space telescope, James Webb, has just captured a spectacular image of an ancient galaxy named A2744-GDSp-z4, a giant, beautiful spiral galaxy.

But it was an unexpected object. It should not have been there, according to the cosmological models long held by humanity.

The "impossible" galaxy A2744-GDSp-z4 under different filters - Photo: NASA/ESA/CSA

Analyzing the James Webb data, a team from the Indian National Centre for Radio Astrophysics calculated the redshift of A2744-GDSp-z4 to be 4.03.

Redshift is the phenomenon where objects moving away from the observer - in this case due to the expansion of the universe - appear redder, as a result of the Doppler effect.

For the galaxy in question, a redshift of 4.03 helps astronomers calculate that the image we observe of it belongs to a world more than 12 billion years ago.

In other words, we're looking at the state of A2744-GDSp-z4 when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old, or 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

But with its "modern" spiral design and mass of up to 10 billion times that of the Sun, the existence of A2744-GDSp-z4 is extremely implausible.

Existing cosmological theories and models suggest that galaxies at that ancient time should have been small and had simpler structures.

For example, the Milky Way galaxy to which our Earth belongs is also a giant spiral galaxy that has spent more than 13 billion years forming stars and swallowing other galaxies to reach its current size and structure.

Meanwhile, the actual age of A2744-GDSp-z4 in the James Webb image may be just a few hundred million years old, based on its remarkable star formation rate.

The team hypothesizes that the formation of A2744-GDSp-z4 may have been driven by the presence of a more active stellar bar than what we see in the universe today.

It is the gaseous structure found in most galaxies, providing fuel for star formation and channeling gas between the inner and outer regions of a galaxy, contributing to the size and shape of the galaxy.

Alternatively, this ancient monster could also have formed through the merger of two smaller galaxies, although this seems less likely due to its orderly structure.

Regardless, its appearance has upset many long-standing theories, suggesting that humanity may have "lost its way" in understanding the early universe.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thien-ha-khong-the-ton-tai-hien-ve-tu-qua-khu-12-ti-nam-truoc-196250103090555151.htm