Astronomers Capture Stunning Image of Distant Monster Galaxy 12 Billion Light Years Away

Incredible Monster Galaxy Forms Stars 1,000 Times Faster Than Milky Way

TL;DR:
Astronomers captured a highly detailed image of a distant galaxy, COSMOS-AzTEC-1, located 12 billion light-years away. This galaxy is forming stars at a rate 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way. Using the ALMA Observatory in Chile, which offers a resolution 10 times sharper than previous efforts, scientists discovered that the galaxy has a highly unusual structure, with three distinct cores—one at the center and two others located several thousand light-years away.

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A group of astronomers has taken an extraordinary image of a faraway galaxy, providing a humbling reminder of how tiny we are in the vastness of the universe.

This “monster galaxy” is located approximately 12 billion light-years away from Earth and forms new stars at a rate 1,000 times faster than our Milky Way. Named COSMOS-AzTEC-1, scientists used the £1.1 billion ALMA Observatory in Chile to study this galaxy, achieving a resolution 10 times higher than any previous observations.

The data revealed previously unseen details about the structure of this “starburst” galaxy, which is thought to have originated within the first billion years after the Big Bang.

Monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1 observed with ALMA. ALMA revealed the distribution of molecular gas (left) and dust particles (right). In addition to the dense cloud in the center, the research team found two dense clouds several thousand light-years away from the center. These dense clouds are dynamically unstable and thought to be the sites of intense star formation. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Tadaki et al.)

Ken-ichi Tadaki from the National Astronomical Observatory in Tokyo, who partnered with the University of Massachusetts Amherst on these observations, explained that they found two distinct massive clouds several thousand light-years away from the galaxy’s center.

While the Milky Way has a single dense core with spiral arms extending outward, COSMOS-AzTEC-1 has three cores, or two smaller ones that orbit the central core, separated by many light-years.

Artist’s impression of the monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1. This galaxy is located 12.4 billion light-years away and is forming stars 1000 times more rapidly than our Milky Way Galaxy. ALMA observations revealed dense gas concentrations in the disk, and intense star formation in those concentrations. (Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

Tadaki noted that in most distant starburst galaxies, star formation is concentrated in the center, so finding off-center clouds was unexpected.

Moreover, this galaxy appears to be unusually unstable.The researchers suggest that the enormous mass of gas in the galaxy exerts too much pressure on the core, overwhelming the outward rotational forces.

In a typical galaxy, the inward pull of gravity and the outward pressure are balanced, but this one is undergoing a significant gravitational collapse, likely causing its rapid star formation.

The team predicts that the entire galaxy will collapse within around 100 million years, but the mystery of how it became so massive remains unsolved.

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