Astronomers are closer to solving a mystery about the creation of the universe’s greatest galaxies that has puzzled them for decades.
Scientists from the University of Southampton (UK) have discovered the birthplaces of giant elliptical galaxies, which scientists say provide new clues about how these galaxies formed, reports Phys.org.
For the study, scientists analyzed more than 100 star-forming galaxies in the distant Universe using the world’s largest radio telescope, ALMA, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, combining their findings with data from space telescopes and other sources.
The discovery was made using a new technique that studies the distribution of light emitted by distant and very bright galaxies.
The creation of these ancient galaxies, which look like bulging footballs compared to the flat disk that our Milky Way resembles, remains a mystery to astrophysicists, the paper notes. But now scientists say their new research may finally solve this mystery.
According to scientists, these giant systems were probably created by large flows of cold gas and collisions between galaxies.
The collision of two disk galaxies caused gas – the fuel from which stars are formed – to sink into their centers, creating trillions of new stars, the researchers note. “These cosmic collisions occurred approximately 8-12 billion years ago, when the Universe was in a much more active phase of its evolution.
The researchers note that their discovery was the first real evidence that such cosmic objects are formed directly from intense episodes of star formation occurring in the cores of distant galaxies.
These galaxies form quickly—gas is sucked in to feed black holes and cause starbursts that are created at a rate ten to 100 times faster than our Milky Way, the researchers note.
Our results bring us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will revolutionize our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early Universe, the researchers note.
Source: Phys.org
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