Artistic representation of what the Milky Way-like galaxy CEERS-2112 looks like from Earth
Luca Costantin (CAB/CSIC-INTA)
Astronomers have discovered the earliest barred spiral galaxy ever. This is the same type of galaxy as our own Milky Way, but its origins date back to an earlier age than previously thought, just 2 billion years after the creation of the universe.
These galaxies have a characteristic bar-like structure made of stars at their center, with spiral arms extending from it.
About two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, have prominent stellar bars filled with infant stars. Cosmological formation models suggest that these galaxies began forming about 4 billion years after the Big Bang. now, Luca Costantin Researchers at the Spanish Astrobiology Center have discovered something even older.
Researchers have discovered an oddity in data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s Cosmic Evolution and Early Emission Science (CEERS) survey, which captured new images of thousands of very distant galaxies.
“It looked a little strange to me,” says Costantin. “Initially, we couldn’t classify the shape.”
By cross-referencing data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the researchers identified it as a barred spiral galaxy, which they named Ceers-2112.
The light in galaxies continues until 2 billion years after the Big Bang, which occurred about 13.7 billion years ago.So ceers-2112 will be the furthest barbed spiral Galaxies discovered so far.
Simulations also suggest that galaxies would have grown to the size of the Milky Way by 4 billion years after the Big Bang. “If we went back in time, the Milky Way might have looked like ceers-2112,” Kostantin said, adding that these observations could improve models of galaxy formation and suggest that the Milky Way and other barred spirals might look like CEERS-2112. They say this could help us understand how galaxies evolved in the early universe. .
“Understanding and finding galaxies like the one we discovered is very important,” Costantin says. “This is a way to look back at the story of our galaxy, and ultimately our origins.”
topic:
- milky way/
- james webb space telescope
