Astronomers discover oxygen in the farthest galaxy that is known

An international astronomer team has discovered oxygen in the most distant galaxy that is known (baptized as ‘Jades-GS-Z14-0’), an unprecedented finding that is motivating the scientific community to rethink the speed with which the galaxies in the primitive universe were formed.

The galaxy, discovered last year, is so far that its light took 13.4 billion years to reach the earth, which means that it can be seen as it was when the universe had less than 300 million years old, approximately 2 percent of its current age.

The discovery, which has been announced in two studies published now, was possible thanks to the set of ‘Alma’ telescopes (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) built in the Chilean Desert of Atacama and of which the Southern European Observatory (that) is a partner.

“It’s like finding a teenager where you would only expect to find babies,” said researcher Sander Schouws, of the Leiden Observatory (Netherlands) and first author of the study, whose conclusions have been published in The Astrophysical Journal magazine.

“The results show that the galaxy has formed very rapidly and also that it is maturing at high speed, which adds to a growing set of evidence that galaxies formation occurs much faster than was believed, according to the scientist.

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Astronomers discover oxygen in the farthest galaxy that is known

Galaxies often begin their life loaded with young stars, mainly formed by light elements such as hydrogen and helium, already measure that stars evolve, create heavier elements such as oxygen, which are dispersed by their host galaxy after dying.

The scientific community thought that, when the universe was about 300 million years old, it was still too young to contain galaxies full of heavy elements, but ‘soul’ studies reveal that this distant galaxy has approximately ten times more heavy elements than expected.

“I was surprised by these unexpected results because they opened a new vision on the first phases of the evolution of the galaxies,” said Stefano Carniani, of the Normal School Superior of Pisa (Italy) and main author of the article published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Oxygen detection has also allowed the astronomical community to make its measurements away to that galaxy much more precise.

Although the galaxy was originally discovered with the James Webb space telescope, Alma confirmed and determined its enormous distance, Professor Rychard Bouwens, a member of the Leiden Observatory team.

The researchers have been surprised at this clear detection of oxygen in that galaxy, since it suggests that the galaxies could form more quickly after the Big Bang of what was thought.

With EFE information.

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