What were galaxies like in the early universe? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the formation and evolution of the first galaxies after the Big Bang. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the conditions of the early universe and what this could mean for the development of life throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers used a combination of data obtained from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) located in Chile to examine “Pablo’s Galaxy” (officially designated as GS-10578) and is estimated to have existed approximately three billion years after the Big Bang. For context, the Big Bang is estimated to have occurred approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Using this data, the researchers discovered that Pablo’s Galaxy had a very short lifespan due to a lack of star formation from the galaxy’s black hole heated all of the cold gas, preventing new stars from forming.
Image of Pablo's Galaxy. (Credit: JADES Collaboration)
“The galaxy looks like a calm, rotating disc,” said Dr. Francesco D’Eugenio, who is a postdoc at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology and a co-author on the study. “That tells us it didn’t suffer a major, disruptive merger with another galaxy. Yet it stopped forming stars 400 million years ago, while the black hole is yet again active. So, the current black hole activity and the outburst of gas we observed didn’t cause the shutdown; instead, repeated episodes likely kept the fuel from coming back.”
This study not only demonstrates the unpredictability of galaxy lifespans, but also how researchers can use a combination of data from space-based and ground-based instruments to conduct groundbreaking science.
What new insight into the first galaxies will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature Astronomy, EurekAlert!
