An international team of astronomers using the ALMA microwave telescope has detected significant amounts of oxygen ions in the oldest and most distant galaxy known to us, JADES-GS-z14-0. We see this galaxy as it was 290 million years after the Big Bang, the press service of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reports.
“This discovery shows that the oldest galaxy formed very quickly and evolved very quickly. This once again confirms that the formation of the first galaxies in the universe began much earlier in the early universe than we previously thought,” says Sander Schauvs, a researcher at the Leiden Observatory.
Scientists say that the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 was discovered in 2024 by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the JADES Early Observations Program. It is located 13.4 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation of the Furnace. Due to this, it can be seen in its early state, almost immediately after its thickness became transparent to electromagnetic waves.
This fact prompted scientists to study JADES-GS-z14-0 in detail using the ALMA microwave telescope installed at the Chaxantor High-Altitude Observatory in the Chilean part of the Atacama Desert. This telescope is capable of capturing microwave radiation emitted by the coldest gas molecules. This allows it to be used to study the chemical composition of ancient galaxies and the chemical evolution of the universe.
The researchers say that they initially expected that the JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy would contain relatively few astronomical “metals” - elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Because its stars should not have produced large quantities of heavy nuclei. However, contrary to these expectations, the ALMA data showed that this galaxy contains very large amounts of carbon and oxygen. Their proportion is about 5-20 times less than the concentration in the matter of the Sun.
The scientists say that the results of such measurements with ALMA turned out to be about ten times higher than the predictions of theorists. This indicates that the growth rates of the early galaxies in the universe and the speed of their chemical evolution are seriously underestimated.
"Further observations of JADES-GS-z14-0 and the search for other similarly ancient galaxies will help us understand exactly how oxygen and other 'metals' formed at their borders and when these star clusters formed," the scientists say.
Ctrl
Enter
Did you find a Mistake?
Highlight the phrase and press Ctrl+EnterRelated News
