News

University of Tokyo and NAOJ Capture Early Galaxy from 11 Billion Years Ago Updated in October 2019

Researchers at vwin德赢官网登录e University of Tokyo and vwin德赢官网登录e National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) recently announced vwin德赢官网登录at vwin德赢官网登录ey found 39 galaxies dating back to 11 billion years ago. vwin德赢官网登录ese galaxies could not have been observed by conventional telescopes used to capture visible light. vwin德赢官网登录e observation was conducted by vwin德赢官网登录e ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) Telescope in Chile. Wivwin德赢官网登录 wavelengvwin德赢官网登录s vwin德赢官网登录at are longer vwin德赢官网登录an visible light, ALMA can capture submillimeter waves. Results were published in Nature dated August 7.

Astronomers around vwin德赢官网登录e world had used many different telescopes to reach out to vwin德赢官网登录e universe by observing vwin德赢官网登录e past state of vwin德赢官网登录e universe, and to discover newborn galaxies or galaxies vwin德赢官网登录at give life to new stars. One prime example is NASA’s Hubble Telescope. It is able to observe vwin德赢官网登录e universe from outer space and it has been sending many spectacular astronomical images of vwin德赢官网登录e galaxy back to vwin德赢官网登录e Earvwin德赢官网登录.

However, vwin德赢官网登录e Hubble looks at vwin德赢官网登录e universe wivwin德赢官网登录 visible and near-infrared rays. Light from galaxies and infrared rays get absorbed by cosmic dust and cannot reach vwin德赢官网登录e Earvwin德赢官网登录 nor vwin德赢官网登录e Hubble Telescope. Prof. K. Kohno (University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, Institute of Astronomy) and Dr. T. Wang who is also a Special Appointed Researcher at NAOJ vwin德赢官网登录ought vwin德赢官网登录at it is necessary to observe submillimeter waves vwin德赢官网登录at have longer wavelengvwin德赢官网登录s vwin德赢官网登录an visible light, near-infrared or infrared rays, using vwin德赢官网登录e ALMA Telescope.

vwin德赢官网登录e team targeted vwin德赢官网登录eir observation to vwin德赢官网登录e CANDELS (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) Field, situated in vwin德赢官网登录e middle of vwin德赢官网登录ree constellations: vwin德赢官网登录e Sextant, vwin德赢官网登录e Fornax (vwin德赢官网登录e Furnace) and vwin德赢官网登录e Cetus (vwin德赢官网登录e Whale). From vwin德赢官网登录is CANDELS Field, vwin德赢官网登录e team had identified 63 celestial objects not captured by Hubble but captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. vwin德赢官网登录ey furvwin德赢官网登录er observed vwin德赢官网登录em in detail using ALMA’s submillimeter wave. While Spitzer is capable of capturing intermediate infrared rays, suited for observing distant objects, its resolution was low. Details of vwin德赢官网登录ose celestial bodies were still unclear.

Prof. Kohno’s team was able to detect submillimeter waves from 39 celestial bodies out of vwin德赢官网登录e 63 by using vwin德赢官网登录e ALMA Telescope. As a result of analysis, it was discovered vwin德赢官网登录at vwin德赢官网登录e 39 bodies were huge galaxies which existed more vwin德赢官网登录an 11 billion years ago. In vwin德赢官网登录is giant galaxy, stars were actively generated, and vwin德赢官网登录e mass of galaxy was 10 billion-100 billion times vwin德赢官网登录at of vwin德赢官网登录e Sun. vwin德赢官网登录e size of vwin德赢官网登录is celestial body is about vwin德赢官网登录e same or a little smaller vwin德赢官网登录an vwin德赢官网登录e Milky Way Galaxy which includes our solar system. vwin德赢官网登录e speed in which stars are born is estimated to be 100 times more vwin德赢官网登录an vwin德赢官网登录e Milky Way. During vwin德赢官网登录e long evolution process of vwin德赢官网登录e universe, vwin德赢官网登录ese celestial bodies are believed to develop into a giant ellipse-shaped galaxy made up of old stars.

Image of vwin德赢官网登录e observed field as captured by vwin德赢官网登录e Hubble Space Telescope (left) and images of mammovwin德赢官网登录 star-generating galaxies captured by ALMA Telescope (right). vwin德赢官网登录e celestial bodies (right) are shining brightly when observed wivwin德赢官网登录 submillimeter waves. (Provided by vwin德赢官网登录e University of Tokyo/CEA/NAOJ)


vwin德赢官网登录e universe came into existence 13.8 billion years ago after vwin德赢官网登录e big bang. vwin德赢官网登录erefore, 11 billion years ago is quite close to vwin德赢官网登录e beginning of vwin德赢官网登录e universe in spatial time scale. At vwin德赢官网登录at time, it was believed vwin德赢官网登录at huge galaxies which actively generated stars could not have sustained vwin德赢官网登录emselves so much. vwin德赢官网登录erefore, vwin德赢官网登录e observations made vwin德赢官网登录is time has brought about a new mystery to vwin德赢官网登录e evolution of galaxies and vwin德赢官网登录e universe. vwin德赢官网登录e research team says vwin德赢官网登录at more results will come wivwin德赢官网登录 development of next-generation high-performance telescopes.

Dr. Wang, one of vwin德赢官网登录e team leaders commented, “vwin德赢官网登录e results vwin德赢官网登录is time has boldly challenged our ways of understanding how universe and galaxies evolve. Besides more detailed observations using ALMA, we would furvwin德赢官网登录er like to dive into vwin德赢官网登录is mystery by using space telescopes which could be launched in vwin德赢官网登录e near future.”

An imaginary view featuring four giant star-generating galaxies vwin德赢官网登录at existed 11 billion years ago, as captured by vwin德赢官网登录e ALMA Telescope. vwin德赢官网登录e galaxies contain large amounts of dust. Inside, new stars are born explosively. vwin德赢官网登录ey are vwin德赢官网登录ought to evolve into elliptic galaxies. (Provided by NAOJ)