NRAO: ALMA Discovers Massive Rotating Disk in Early Universe

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NRAO: ALMA Discovers Massive Rotating Disk in Early Universe

Post by bystander » Thu May 21, 2020 6:27 pm

ALMA Discovers Massive Rotating Disk in Early Universe
ALMA | NRAO | 2020 May 20
In our 13.8 billion-year-old universe, most galaxies like our Milky Way form gradually, reaching their large mass relatively late. But a new discovery made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of a massive rotating disk galaxy, seen when the universe was only ten percent of its current age, challenges the traditional models of galaxy formation.

Galaxy DLA0817g, nicknamed the Wolfe Disk after the late astronomer Arthur M. Wolfe, is the most distant rotating disk galaxy ever observed. The unparalleled power of ALMA made it possible to see this galaxy spinning at 170 miles (272 kilometers) per second, similar to our Milky Way.

“While previous studies hinted at the existence of these early rotating gas-rich disk galaxies, thanks to ALMA we now have unambiguous evidence that they occur as early as 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang,” said lead author Marcel Neeleman ...

The discovery of the Wolfe Disk provides a challenge for many galaxy formation simulations, which predict that massive galaxies at this point in the evolution of the cosmos grew through many mergers of smaller galaxies and hot clumps of gas.

“Most galaxies that we find early in the universe look like train wrecks because they underwent consistent and often ‘violent’ merging,” explained Neeleman. “These hot mergers make it difficult to form well-ordered, cold rotating disks like we observe in our present universe.” ...

They grow up so fast: New observations show that massive
disk galaxies formed exceptionally early in cosmic history

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) | 2020 May 20

A Cold, Massive, Rotating Disk 1.5 Billion Years after the Big Bang ~ Marcel Neeleman et al
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