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| GALACTIC COCOON. Astronomers using the ALMA radio telescope in Chile have uncovered a “nest” of huge infant galaxies born within a weblike structure shown in this visualization, some 11.5 billion light-years away |
Astronomers using the world’s most sensitive
radio telescope have discovered a “nest” of
infant galaxies lying some 11.5 billion light-years
away. Lots of very young and very distant galaxies
are known; what makes these special is that
they’re clustered within a web of dark matter,
wrapped within a junction of giant filaments.
Moreover, they are monstrous galaxies with star
formation rates hundreds or thousands of times
greater than the galaxies we observe closer to
us in the present-day universe.
us in the present-day universe.
Ideas about the formation of galaxies in the
early universe suggest that such galaxies should
form in special environments where dark matter
is concentrated. Without the incredible power
of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array, however, the search for these kinds
of young galaxies was incredibly difficult. Now
astronomers using this high-altitude radio telescope
in Chile have peered through obscuring
dust to reveal them.
The research team led by Hideki Umehata,
Yoichi Tamura, and Kotaro Kohno of the
European Southern Observatory and University
of Tokyo observed a tiny part of the sky in the
constellation Aquarius, uncovering these galaxies
in a region designated SSA22.
The data from ALMA allowed the researchers
to pinpoint the locations of nine monstrous galaxies
within a small group tucked inside a “great
wall” of dark matter filaments. The discovery will
shed light on galaxy formation, and opens up
the possibility of finding other, similar groups of
powerful, infant galaxies
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