A new image of an ancient, distant galaxy could help scientists understand how it formed and the origin of the Milky Way. More than 12 billion years old, BRI 1335-0417 is the oldest and most distant known spiral galaxy in our universe. Chief writer Dr. Takafumi Tsukui said that the state-of-the-art ALMA telescope allowed them to look at this old galaxy in much more detail.

Dr. “We were particularly interested in how gas moves within and across the galaxy,” Tsukui said. “Gas is an important component in star formation and can give us important clues about how the galaxy actually contributes to star formation.”

In this case, researchers were not only able to record the movement of gas around BRI 1335-0417, but also detect seismic wave formation in such early galaxies for the first time. The study was published in the Monthly magazine Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The galaxy’s disk, a flattened mass of spinning stars, gas, and dust, moves in a way not unlike the waves emitted after a stone is thrown into a pond.

“The vertical oscillatory motion of the disk is caused by either new gas entering the galaxy or an external source from contact with other smaller galaxies,” Dr Tsukui said. said. “Both possibilities would bombard the galaxy with new fuel for star formation.

“Our study also revealed a line-like structure of the disk. Galactic bars can distort gas and transport it to the center of the galaxy. The band found in BRI 1335-0417 is the most distant structure of its kind known. Together, these results demonstrate the dynamic growth of a young galaxy.”

Because BRI 1335-0417 is so far away, its light takes longer to reach Earth. The images seen through the telescope today are a throwback to the galaxy’s early days, when the universe was only 10% of its current age.

“It was discovered that the first galaxies formed stars much faster than modern galaxies. This is the case for BRI 1335-0417, which, despite having a mass similar to the Milky Way, formed stars hundreds of times faster,” he said.

“We wanted to understand how the gas was provided to keep up with such rapid star formation.

“Spiral structures are rare in the early universe, and it is not known exactly how they formed. This research also gives us important information about the most likely scenarios.

“While it is impossible to directly observe the evolution of a galaxy, computer simulations can help piece together the story, as our observations only give us a snapshot.”