ALMA Peers Back 12.4 Billion Years and Discovers the Most Ancient Galaxy of Its Kind Ever Observed

ALMA Galaxy BRI 1335–0417

ALMA detected emissions from carbon ions in the galaxy. Spiral arms are visible on both sides of the compact, bright area in the center of the galaxy. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T. Tsukui & S. Iguchi

Analyzing data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers found a galaxy with a spiral morphology only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This is the most ancient galaxy of its kind ever observed. The discovery of a galaxy with a spiral structure at such an early stage is an important clue to solving the classic questions of astronomy: “How and when did spiral galaxies form?”

“I was excited because I had never seen such clear evidence of a rotating disk, spiral structure, and centralized mass structure in a distant galaxy in any previous literature,” says Takafumi Tsukui, a graduate student at SOKENDAI and the lead author of the research paper published in the journal Science. “The quality of the ALMA data was so good that I was able to see so much detail that I thought it was a nearby galaxy.”

The Milky Way Galaxy, where we live, is a spiral galaxy. Spiral galaxies are fundamental objects in the Universe, accounting for as much as 70% of the total number of galaxies. However, other studies have shown that the proportion of spiral galaxies declines rapidly as we look back through the history of the Universe. So, when were the spiral galaxies formed?

Tsukui and his supervisor Satoru Iguchi, a professor at SOKENDAI and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, noticed a galaxy called BRI 1335-0417 in the ALMA Science Archive. The galaxy existed 12.4 billion years ago [1] and contained a large amount of dust, which obscures the starlight. This makes it difficult to study this galaxy in detail with visible light. On the other hand, ALMA can detect radio emissions from carbon ions in the galaxy, which enables us to investigate what is going on in the galaxy.

The researchers found a spiral structure extending about 15,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy. This is one third of the size of the Milky Way Galaxy. The estimated total mass of the stars and interstellar matter in BRI 1335-0417 is roughly equal to that of the Milky Way.

“As BRI 1335-0417 is a very distant object, we might not be able to see the true edge of the galaxy in this observation,” comments Tsukui. “For a galaxy that existed in the early Universe, BRI 1335-0417 was a giant.”

Then the question becomes, how was this distinct spiral structure formed in only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang? The researchers considered multiple possible causes and suggested that it could be due to an interaction with a small galaxy. BRI 1335-0417 is actively forming stars and the researchers found that the gas in the outer part of the galaxy is gravitationally unstable, which is conducive to star formation. This situation is likely to occur when a large amount of gas is supplied from outside, possibly due to collisions with smaller galaxies.

The fate of BRI 1335-0417 is also shrouded in mystery. Galaxies that contain large amounts of dust and actively produce stars in the ancient Universe are thought to be the ancestors of the giant elliptical galaxies in the present Universe. In that case, BRI 1335-0417 changes its shape from a disk galaxy to an elliptical one in the future. Or, contrary to the conventional view, the galaxy may remain a spiral galaxy for a long time. BRI 1335-0417 will play an important role in the study of galaxy shape evolution over the long history of the Universe.

“Our Solar System is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way,” explains Iguchi. “Tracing the roots of spiral structure will provide us with clues to the environment in which the Solar System was born. I hope that this research will further advance our understanding of the formation history of galaxies.”

Notes

  1. The redshift of this object is z=4.41. Using the cosmological parameters measured with Planck (H0=67.3km/s/Mpc, Ωm=0.315, Λ=0.685: Planck 2013 Results), we can calculate the distance to the object to be 12.4 billion light-years. (Please refer to “Expressing the distance to remote objects” for the details.)

Reference: “Spiral morphology in an intensely star-forming disk galaxy more than 12 billion years ago” by Takafumi Tsukui and Satoru Iguchi, 20 May 2021, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abe9680

7 Comments on "ALMA Peers Back 12.4 Billion Years and Discovers the Most Ancient Galaxy of Its Kind Ever Observed"

  1. So does that mean, from their position in the universe, we are an ancient galaxy too. Forming 1.4 billion years after the big bang? Depends where you make the center.

  2. BibhutibhusanPatel | May 26, 2021 at 2:21 am | Reply

    BR̹335-0417 is Sole Result of the Big Bang at fiŕst instant and glance due to sole Nature of the Physìcs itsèlf regardless to Space wìth Time T=0.This galaxy is comparable to our galaxy milkyway being nearly equal in mass and has age 12.4 billion years,spiral structure extended 15,ooo light years from centre of the galaxy.Universe contains 70% of thegalaxìes are spiral shaped.This galaxy is spiŕal in shspe like the shape of our galaxy Milkyway.Another galaxy 1 billion years olďer in age than this galaxy BRI1335-0417 is even present in successìon of time as evolution of galaxies occured after the Big Bang has just elepsed 0.4 billion of years.

    • Torbjörn Larsson | May 26, 2021 at 2:25 pm | Reply

      ? Not sole result, since the universe as we observe it is a result of later big bang (after inflation ende). And in any case you can easily web search up older galaxies we have seen – the oldest is << 1 Gyrs after the hot big bang.

  3. BibhutibhusanPatel | May 26, 2021 at 2:29 am | Reply

    BR̹335-0417 is Sole Result of the Big Bang at fiŕst instant and glance due to sole Nature of the Physìcs itsèlf regardless to Space wìth Time T=0.This galaxy is comparable to our galaxy milkyway being nearly equal in mass and has age 12.4 billion years,spiral structure extended 15,ooo light years from centre of the galaxy.Universe contains 70% of thegalaxìes are spiral shaped.This galaxy is spiŕal in shspe like the shape of our galaxy Milkyway.Another galaxy 1 billion years olďer in age than this galaxy BRI1335-0417 is even present in successìon of time as evolution of galaxies occured after the Big Bang has just elepsed 0.4 billion of years.These 0.4 billion years of the universe spent on synthesization of matter created fròm the Big Bang.

  4. BibhutibhusanPatel | May 26, 2021 at 2:44 am | Reply

    BR̹335-0417 is Sole Result of the Big Bang at fiŕst instant and glance due to sole Nature of the Physìcs itsèlf regardless to Space wìth Time T=0.This galaxy is comparable to our galaxy milkyway being nearly equal in mass and has age 12.4 billion years,spiral structure extended 15,ooo light years from centre of the galaxy.Universe contains 70% of thegalaxìes are spiral shaped.This galaxy is spiŕal in shspe like the shape of our galaxy Milkyway.Another galaxy 1 billion years olďer in age than this galaxy BRI1335-0417 is even present in successìon of time as evolution of galaxies occured after the Big Bang has just elepsed 0.4 billion of years.These 0.4 billion years of the universe spent on synthesization of matter created fròm the Big Bang.So,first distinct galaxy appeared 13.4 billion years before.But the galaxies like one as BRI1335-0417 are originated indifferently as accounted.Hence,two different lines of origin of galaxies from big bang are to noted.

  5. Roger Haselhorst KS. | May 28, 2021 at 1:45 pm | Reply

    Please forgive my employ of loose paraphrase (lack more appropriate term) to frame serious questions, thoughts from this non- physicist! Matter becomes energy,energy becomes matter. In proper conditions.Elegant! Most substance expands and contracts,if heated or cooled. Nothing is ever lost, merely transforms. As matter approaches the point where it becomes energy and energy becomes matter,(quantum) the more we think we know, new questions suggest we don’t.The vacuum of space is so empty, yet pregnant with energy and quasi particles that aren’t. Forces and fields, gravity, higgs (god) field allowing the boson to lend mass to matter,bringing it under gravitational influence. Strong and weak force. These forces and fields encircuit it’s part, whether macro or micro. Hubbell observes an expanding universe and the most elegant theory we come up with is to twist,contort suspend,the laws that work mostly everywhere else and invent near infinite but brief expansion leaving universe too hot for too long to explain old huge galaxies like ours and possibly even older globular clusters let alone being backed into a box to far to alow for huge early black holes. What would universe look like if our Galaxy is one of the oldest, and mature as we are told, give or take a billion years and was encircuited early, placing us near center, give or take a million light years. What if we are in an expansion phase of a respiratory cycle around a “dark” gravitational anchor. Each new telescope takes us farther out, what if universe is scores or hundreds of billions of years old? I get the race to fit theory to observation. If any other attempt to describe a tension or problem required the level contrivance as the early universe, would it gain traction?

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