A Monster Galaxy From the Dawn of the Universe Discovered by Accident [Video]

A Massive Galaxy from the Dawn of the Universe

An artist’s impression of what a massive galaxy in the early universe might look like. The galaxy is undergoing an explosion of star formation, lighting up the gas surrounding the galaxy. Thick clouds of dust obscure most of the light, causing the galaxy to look dim and disorganized, very different from galaxies seen today. Credit: James Josephides/Swinburne Astronomy Productions, Christina Williams/University of Arizona, Ivo Labbe/Swinburne

The early universe is filled with monsters, a new study revealed. Astronomers discovered a previously invisible galaxy, and perhaps a new galaxy population waiting to be discovered.

Astronomers accidentally discovered the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early universe that has never been seen before. Like a cosmic Yeti, the scientific community generally regarded these galaxies as folklore, given the lack of evidence of their existence, but astronomers in the United States and Australia managed to snap a picture of the beast for the first time.

Published today (October 22, 2019) in the Astrophysical Journal, the discovery provides new insights into the first growing steps of some of the biggest galaxies in the universe.

University of Arizona astronomer Christina Williams, lead author of the study, noticed a faint light blob in new sensitive observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, a collection of 66 radio telescopes high in the Chilean mountains. Strangely enough, the shimmering seemed to be coming out of nowhere, like a ghostly footstep in a vast dark wilderness.

“It was very mysterious because the light seemed not to be linked to any known galaxy at all,” said Williams, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Steward Observatory. “When I saw this galaxy was invisible at any other wavelength, I got really excited because it meant that it was probably really far away and hidden by clouds of dust.”

The researchers estimate that the signal came from so far away that it took 12.5 billion years to reach Earth, therefore giving us a view of the universe in its infancy. They think the observed emission is caused by the warm glow of dust particles heated by stars forming deep inside a young galaxy. The giant clouds of dust conceal the light of the stars themselves, rendering the galaxy completely invisible.

Study co-author Ivo Labbé, of the Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, said: “We figured out that the galaxy is actually a massive monster galaxy with as many stars as our Milky Way, but brimming with activity, forming new stars at 100 times the rate of our own galaxy.”

The discovery may solve a long-standing question in astronomy, the authors said. Recent studies found that some of the biggest galaxies in the young universe grew up and came of age extremely quickly, a result that is not understood theoretically. Massive mature galaxies are seen when the universe was only a cosmic toddler at 10% of its current age. Even more puzzling is that these mature galaxies appear to come out of nowhere: astronomers never seem to catch them while they are forming.

Smaller galaxies have been seen in the early universe with the Hubble Space Telescope, but such creatures are not growing fast enough to solve the puzzle. Other monster galaxies have also been previously reported, but those sightings have been far too rare for a satisfying explanation.

“Our hidden monster galaxy has precisely the right ingredients to be that missing link,” Williams explains, “because they are probably a lot more common.”

An open question is exactly how many of them there are. The observations for the current study were made in a tiny part of the sky, less than 1/100th the disc of the full moon. Like the Yeti, finding footprints of the mythical creature in a tiny strip of wilderness would either be a sign of incredible luck or a sign that monsters are literally lurking everywhere.

Williams said researchers are eagerly awaiting the March 2021 scheduled launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to investigate these objects in more detail.

“JWST will be able to look through the dust veil so we can learn how big these galaxies really are and how fast they are growing, to better understand why models fail in explaining them.”

But for now, the monsters are out there, shrouded in dust and a lot of mystery.

Read Monster Galaxy Discovered by Accident for more on this discovery.

Reference: “Discovery of a Dark, Massive, ALMA-only Galaxy at z ~ 5–6 in a Tiny 3 mm Survey” by Christina C. Williams, Ivo Labbe, Justin Spilker, Mauro Stefanon, Joel Leja, Katherine Whitaker, Rachel Bezanson, Desika Narayanan, Pascal Oesch and Benjamin Weiner, 22 October 2019, Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab44aa

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

6 Comments on "A Monster Galaxy From the Dawn of the Universe Discovered by Accident [Video]"

  1. lol. Whenever I visit this site there is usually at least one article that clearly demonstrates the big bang model is very faulty. For me cosmic background radiation demonstrates, not the current big bang theory, but continuous growth everywhere, as does this finding.

    The Higgs field represents my view about the self-creating nature of reality in a partial fashion – but ask yourself if the Higgs field is real, why is there a need for big bang?

    I am not saying a form of big bang did not occur, as self-exploding entities such as a supernova are clearly real – but I suggest it would be like an explosion of a balloon of existing material into other pre-existing material (other universe shells, other centres of gravity), such as a balloon exploding into the surrounding air, not any form of singularity.

  2. the universe its reviling it self… the myth about the alien my be real

  3. Scientists refer to some observable objects in the universe as being hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of light years distant, back almost to the beginning of time. If the light from objects at those distances has taken that long to get here, how did we get here first? The question puzzles me.

  4. Babu G. Ranganathan | October 23, 2019 at 1:55 pm | Reply

    by Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. Bible/Biology)

    JUST BECAUSE SCIENCE CAN EXPLAIN how an airplane works doesn’t mean that no one designed or made the airplane. And just because science can explain how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Designer and Maker behind them.

    Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells from raw materials such as amino acids and other chemicals, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.

    WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No human observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.

    SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing and irreversible net energy decay, even in an open system). Even a hypothetical oscillating universe could not continue to oscillate eternally! Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity shows that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson, even if it existed, would not have created mass from nothing, but rather it would have converted energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.

    The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.

    Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because science teaches us from the First Law of Thermodynamics that natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing.

    The supernatural origin of the universe cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.

    The disorder in the universe can be explained because of chance and random processes, but the order can be explained only because of intelligence and design.

    Gravity may explain how the order found in the precise and orderly courses of thousands of billions of stars is maintained, but gravity cannot explain the origin of that order.

    Some evolutionary astronomers believe that trillions of stars crashed into each other leaving surviving stars to find precise orderly orbits in space. Not only is this irrational, but if there was such a mass collision of stars then there would be a super mass residue of gas clouds in space to support this hypothesis. The present level of residue of gas clouds in space doesn’t support the magnitude of star deaths required for such a hypothesis. And, as already stated, the origin of stars cannot be explained by the Big Bang because of the reasons mentioned above. It’s one thing to say that stars may decay and die into random gas clouds, but it is totally different to say that gas clouds form into stars.

    Even the father of Chaos theory admitted that the “mechanisms” existing in the non-living world allow for only very rudimentary levels of order to arise spontaneously (by chance), but not the kind or level of order we find in the structures of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Yes, individual amino acids have been shown to come into existence by chance but not protein molecules which require that the various amino acids be in a precise sequence just like the letters found in a sentence.

    Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”

    An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.

    If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.

    It’s interesting that Carl Sagan would have acknowledged sequential radio signals in space as evidence of intelligent life sending them, but he wouldn’t acknowledge the sequential structure of molecules in DNA (the genetic code) as evidence of an intelligent Cause. Read my popular Internet article, HOW DID MY DNA MAKE ME.

    I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles:

    NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION
    HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM

    Visit my latest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION (This site answers many arguments, both old and new, that have been used by evolutionists to support their theory)

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

    *I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.

  5. Sankaravelayudhan Nandakumar | October 24, 2019 at 1:30 am | Reply

    Now time has come to evaluate two types of dark matter one solid and another hallow or spongy forming cracks or cavities atleast to reflect photons to energise itself between multi reflectiins.Now suppose there is gamma ray interaction any planet formed such as White dwarf may become a Rydberg planet of hallow by a strange electron striping project atoms with Rydberg configuration with highly energetic electrons on the tipological surface with highly energetic surface electron on the atom surface when collapse may produce new materials we are unheard of may fabricate a triangular parallel bonding forming a hexogonal acting as a catalistic collapse of an evolution of evolution that may interact with photons differently producing diffetent microchips of phot electric effect.Now the evolution of an evolution which has no ending.

  6. Sankaravelayudhan Nandakumar | October 24, 2019 at 2:00 am | Reply

    The photo electric effect on material with high energy may knock down electrons.Such an electron striped at the center may produce more hollow atoms at the surface with Rydberg atoms with highly energectic electrons at the perifery.Any photon interaction ejecting electrons before ejection share their energy while sending it backwards also at the Rydberg eletron shift partially withdraw it energy sharing1/3 on to the photon maximum energy transfered on to the ejected electron possibly with formation of Rydberg Electron suface having highly energetic topological configuration of hollow atoms scribbling an epistemology of knowledge perhaps may lead to triangular parallel phases forming a hexogonal axis structure absorbing a new crystal ejecting the extra electron outside forming a new metallurgical inorganic chemical bonding stipulated by Nobel Laureate Wilberg.

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