Astronomers discover bizarre mini-galaxy from the early years of the universe

Astronomers discover bizarre mini-galaxy from the early years of the universe

The small, young galaxy was filled with planet-producing dust, which is not something scientists were expecting to find outside of large galaxies with frequent violent explosions.

An international team of astronomers have looked deep into the history of the universe and have found something surprising: a galaxy that doesn’t belong.

In a study published today in the journal Nature, scientists reported that they have spotted a tiny galaxy that is just 700 million years separated from the Big Bang, but it is filled with dust — which is not characteristic of small, young galaxies, according to a National Geographic report.

Daniel Marrone, an expert on the formation of galaxies at the University of Arizona who wasn’t a part of the study, was quoted in the report as saying that because dust is essential to the formation of planets, the cosmos began without any dust — the early universe likely only consisted of hydrogen and helium gas, along with dark matter.

Marrone said the finding suggests that scientists don’t know as much as they think they do about what the early universe looked like, and there is a lot to be learned.

Scientists believe that the gas in the universe after the Big Bang eventually condensed to form the first stars, which later created heavier elements like carbon and oxygen, which are essential to life. Then, the stars died and released the elements to space, and this was when dust began to form.

The newly discovered galaxy, dubbed A1689-zD1, existed when the first stars were dying, meaning that dust was certainly around at that time, but the dust should have been in large, bright galaxies with lots of stars forming, not in such a small, young galaxy as this.

It’s tough for astronomers to find galaxies from so early in the universe’s history, as they are of such an incredible distance away that even the most powerful telescopes can catch just a dim glimpse of even the brightest galaxies. However, scientists were able to use the magnifying effect of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as the Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert to examine a huge cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1689.

After VLT was able to track down and date the galaxy, the scientists used the dust-sensitive Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope. Astronomers were shocked at just how dusty A1689-zD1 was, as it showed the hallmarks that galaxies leave when stars explode violently and leave dust everywhere.

Scientists hope to learn more by perhaps finding more galaxies like this one, but that won’t be easy to do, as they are very difficult to find and the only other example scientists know of is free of dust.

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