SPACE — The galaxy discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) known as ZF-UDS-7329, has attracted the attention of scientists because of its strangeness. This galaxy is believed to have more stars than the Milky Way, even though it formed just 800 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was about 13.8 billion years old.
The presence of such galaxies, without the presence of dark matter required in standard models of galaxy formation, poses a significant challenge to our understanding of cosmology.
Scientists are still figuring out how this phenomenon could occur. However, this discovery reflects previous findings by JWST of other ancient galaxies that are also large in size.
According to Claudia Lagos, a professor of astronomy at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research, the existence of these super massive galaxies in the early stages of the universe presents a major challenge to existing cosmological models. This is because, in theory, large galaxies like this are thought to form through large dark matter structures. However, early in the history of the universe, large-scale dark matter had not yet formed.
“The existence of these very massive galaxies so early in the universe poses a significant challenge to our standard model of cosmology,” said Claudia Lagos, reported by Space.
How was this galaxy discovered? Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers were able to look back at this galaxy from about 11.5 billion years ago, studying the spectrum of light coming from the stars within it. They found that these stars existed about 1.5 billion years before these observations, or about 13 billion years ago.
Scientists are still unsure when the first clumps of stars began to form the galaxies we know today. However, previous theories indicated that this process began several hundred million years after the Big Bang.
Current theories suggest that dark matter halos, along with gas, formed the seeds of early galaxies. However, ZF-UDS-7329 formed without enough dark matter to plant the seeds of its formation.
Interestingly, this galaxy also suddenly stopped forming stars not long after a period of intense star formation. Themiya Nanayakkara, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, says this phenomenon expands the boundaries of our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
The next step for researchers is to look for more galaxies with similar characteristics. Such further discoveries could completely change our view of how galaxies form. The study was published Feb. 14 in the journal Nature.
2024-02-25 23:31:00
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