Discovery of massive early galaxies defies prior understanding of the
universe

Date:
February 23, 2023
Source:
Penn State
Summary:
Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending
what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies
in the universe.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending
what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in
the universe.


========================================================================== "These objects are way more massive? than anyone expected," said Joel
Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State,
who modeled light from these galaxies. "We expected only to find tiny,
young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we've discovered galaxies
as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of
the universe." Using the first dataset released from NASA's James Webb
Space Telescope, the international team of scientists discovered objects
as mature as the Milky Way when the universe was only 3% of its current
age, about 500-700 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope is
equipped with infrared-sensing instruments capable of detecting light
that was emitted by the most ancient stars and galaxies. Essentially,
the telescope allows scientists to see back in time roughly 13.5 billion
years, near the beginning of the universe as we know it, Leja explained.

"This is our first glimpse back this far, so it's important that we
keep an open mind about what we are seeing," Leja said. "While the data indicates they are likely galaxies, I think there is a real possibility
that a few of these objects turn out to be obscured supermassive black
holes. Regardless, the amount of mass we discovered means that the known
mass in stars at this period of our universe is up to 100 times greater
than we had previously thought. Even if we cut the sample in half, this
is still an astounding change." In a paper published today (Feb. 22)
in Nature, the researchers show evidence that the six galaxies are far
more massive than anyone expected and call into question what scientists previously understood about galaxy formation at the very beginning of
the universe.

"The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early
in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was
settled science," said Leja. "We've been informally calling these objects 'universe breakers' -- and they have been living up to their name so far."
Leja explained that the galaxies the team discovered are so massive that
they are in tension with 99% percent of models for cosmology. Accounting
for such a high amount of mass would require either altering the models
for cosmology or revising the scientific understanding of galaxy formation
in the early universe -- that galaxies started as small clouds of stars
and dust that gradually grew larger over time. Either scenario requires
a fundamental shift in our understanding of how the universe came to be,
he added.

"We looked into the very early universe for the first time and had no idea
what we were going to find," Leja said. "It turns out we found something
so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the
whole picture of early galaxy formation into question." On July 12,
NASA released the first full-color images and spectroscopic data from
the James Webb Space Telescope. The largest infrared telescope in space,
Webb was designed to see the genesis of the cosmos, its high resolution allowing it to view objects too old, distant or faint for the Hubble
Space Telescope.

"When we got the data, everyone just started diving in and these massive
things popped out really fast," Leja said. "We started doing the modeling
and tried to figure out what they were, because they were so big and
bright. My first thought was we had made a mistake and we would just find
it and move on with our lives. But we have yet to find that mistake,
despite a lot of trying." Leja explained that one way to confirm the
team's finding and alleviate any remaining concerns would be to take a
spectrum image of the massive galaxies.

That would provide the team data on the true distances, and also the
gasses and other elements that made up the galaxies. The team could then
use the data to model a clearer of picture of what the galaxies looked
like, and how massive they truly were.

"A spectrum will immediately tell us whether or not these things are
real," Leja said. "It will show us how big they are, how far away they
are. What's funny is we have all these things we hope to learn from James
Webb and this was nowhere near the top of the list. We've found something
we never thought to ask the universe -- and it happened way faster than I thought, but here we are." The other co-authors on the paper are Elijah Mathews and Bingjie Wang of Penn State, Ivo Labbe of the Swinburne
University of Technology, Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, Erica
Nelson of the University of Colorado, Rachel Bezanson of the University
of Pittsburgh, Katherine A. Suess of the University of California and
Stanford University, Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen,
Katherine Whitaker of the University of Massachusetts and the University
of Copenhagen, and Mauro Stefanon of the Universitat de Valencia.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Space_&_Time
# Galaxies # Astrophysics # Cosmology # Big_Bang # NASA #
Space_Telescopes # Astronomy # Space_Exploration
* RELATED_TERMS
o Galaxy_formation_and_evolution o Galaxy o
Shape_of_the_Universe o Hubble_Deep_Field o
Large-scale_structure_of_the_cosmos o Dark_matter o
Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe o Astrophysics

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Penn_State. Original written by
Adrienne Berard. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
*
Six_candidate_massive_galaxies,_seen_500-700_million_years_after_the_Big
Bang ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ivo Labbe', Pieter van Dokkum, Erica Nelson, Rachel Bezanson,
Katherine
A. Suess, Joel Leja, Gabriel Brammer, Katherine Whitaker, Elijah
Mathews, Mauro Stefanon, Bingjie Wang. A population of red candidate
massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang. Nature, 2023; DOI:
10.1038/s41586- 023-05786-2 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230223181829.htm

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