MPIA: Fast-Growing Galaxies Could Solve Cosmic Riddle

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MPIA: Fast-Growing Galaxies Could Solve Cosmic Riddle

Post by bystander » Wed May 24, 2017 6:01 pm

Newly Discovered Fast-Growing Galaxies Could Solve Cosmic Riddle
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy | 2017 May 24
[img3="Artist's impression of a quasar and neighboring merging galaxy. The galaxies observed by Decarli and collaborators are so distant that no detailed images are possible at present. This combination of images of nearby counterparts gives an impression of how they might look in more detail. Image Credit: MPIA / NASA/ESA Hubble"]http://www.mpia.de/4320171/zoom-1495530611.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Astronomers have discovered a new kind of galaxy in the early universe, less than a billion years after the Big Bang. These galaxies are forming stars more than a hundred times faster than our own Milky Way. The discovery could explain an earlier finding: a population of suprisingly massive galaxies at a time 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, which would require such hyper-productive precursors to grow their hundreds of billions of stars. The observations also show what appears to be the earliest image of galaxies merging. ...

When a group of astronomers discovered unusually massive galaxies in the early universe a few years ago, the sheer size of these galaxies, with hundreds of billions of stars, posed a puzzle. The galaxies are so distant, we see them as they were a mere 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was about 10% its present age. How were they able to form so many stars, in such a comparatively short time?

Now, a serendipitous discovery by a group of astronomers led by Roberto Decarli from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy is pointing to a possible solution to the mystery: a population of hyper-productive galaxies in the very early universe, at a time less than a billion years after the Big Bang. ...

Discovered: Fast-Growing Galaxies from the Early Universe
Carnegie Institution for Science | 2017 May 24

Rapidly star-forming galaxies adjacent to quasars at redshifts exceeding 6 - R. Decarli et al
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