He James Webb Space Telescope he did it one more time. She captured amazing details of a galaxy that is just a few 12 billion light years away from Earth. It is a star cluster in the early universe, discovered in 2020 by the ALMA of Chilewhich breaks with many theories of star and planet formation in existence.
He ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) first observed this galaxy three years ago. This observatory does not have enough tools to know the details of the elements that develop in this distant region of the universe.
However, at that moment they did notice that it was a galaxy with characteristics similar to that of the Milky Way, something impossible according to the theories known until then. Now, thanks to the infrared instruments of the NASA James Webb Space Telescopeand the gravitational lens method confirm the existence of complex molecules, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
Finding these elements in the Milky Way is normal, but in a galaxy from when the universe was “only” 1.5 billion years old, it goes against what was known about the formation of stars and planets.
“Detecting these complex organic molecules at such a great distance is a game changer for future observations. This work is only the first step, and now we are learning how to use it and know its capabilities. We are very excited to see how this develops,” said Joaquín Vieira, co-author of the research published in the journal Nature, according to a review. Very interesting.
The galaxy itself is named after SPT0418-47. The statements from when they discovered it in 2020 are in the same tone of astonishment as the current ones. We share this Simona Vegetti, from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, author of a report from three years ago.
“What we found was quite puzzling: despite forming stars at a high rate and therefore being a place with highly energetic processes, SPT0418-47 is the best-ordered galaxy disc ever observed in the early universe. . This result is quite unexpected and has important implications for the way we think galaxies evolve.” explained