EGS-23205 and EGS-24268, both from 11 billion years ago when the universe was only 25% of its current age from Hubble (right), JWST (left).— Twitter/@Ramon_E_G
Even more breathtaking images of space are sent back from James Webb Space Telescope, and this time, they are from the distant past. Images from the brand new spacecraft show distant galaxies with structures resembling those of the Milky Way, our galaxy.
James Webb’s images were taken when the galaxy was only 25% of its current age and show a spiral galaxy with star bands that are elongated structures of stars extending from the center to the outer disks of galaxies about 11 billion years ago.
“I looked at this data and said, ‘We’re throwing everything else away!'” Sharda Joji, a professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, described in a media release.
“Bands barely visible in the Hubble data just popped up in the JWST image, showing JWST’s enormous power to see the underlying structure in galaxies.”
Our understanding of how spiral galaxies form and evolve may change as we learn more about these galaxies and why they resemble the Milky Way galaxy.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of distant galaxies before, but obscuring dust and the glare of young stars revealed only a nebulous disc-shaped blob. James Webb’s retaking of these photos revealed more information than before.
James Webb’s huge mirror makes it more efficient at gathering light. Longer infrared wavelengths allow it to see through dust with greater precision and also help identify underlying structure.
“For this study, we’re looking at a new mode where no one has used this kind of data or done this kind of quantitative analysis before,” Study Finds quoted Yuchen “Kei” Guo, a graduate student who led the data analysis, as saying.
“So everything is new. It’s like going into a forest where no one has ever been before.”
The galaxy designated EGS-23205 appears to be a spiral galaxy with a distinct star bar. Another barred galaxy, EGS-2468, may have formed 11 billion years ago, according to astronomers. The telescope found four more barred galaxies older than eight million years.
Galactic bars are crucial to a galaxy’s evolution because they channel gas into its core. In turn, the gas promotes the development of stars.
“Bars solve the galactic supply chain problem,” Jogi explained.
A rod moves gas into the center of the galaxy at a speed that is typically 10 to 100 times faster than in the rest of the galaxy, just as we must transport raw materials from the port to inland factories that create new products.
By channeling the gas, lattices can also help form supermassive black holes in the galactic core.
Spiral bars appear to be a mechanism for accelerating the creation of new stars during the early epochs, challenging astronomers’ beliefs about galaxy formation. These early features also contradict the cosmos as currently understood because they add another variable to galactic physics.
According to a report by StudyFinds, the study has been accepted and will soon be published in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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