Scientists studying the most gigantic known galaxy in the early universe discovered water in it, a fascinating revelation that sheds light on how the universe evolved.
This massive galaxy is actually a pair of galaxies known collectively as SPT0311-58. It was discovered by scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, one of the best telescope arrays available for studying the origins of the universe.
SPT0311-58 was discovered in 2017 and shows how things were when the universe was only 780 million years old (it's now approaching its 14 billionth birthday). Water was discovered there, making it the farthest detection of the material in a regular star-forming galaxy.
"This galaxy is the most massive galaxy currently known at high redshift, or the time when the Universe was still very young," Sreevani Jarugula, an astronomer at the University of Illinois and a co-author of the recent paper, said in a National Radio Astronomy Observatory news release.
"It has more gas and dust compared to other galaxies in the early Universe, which gives us plenty of potential opportunities to observe abundant molecules and to better understand how these life-creating elements impacted the development of the early Universe."
Because things were more energetic earlier in the universe, young galaxies (the most ancient ones we see today) produced stars at a much faster rate than our own galaxy does now. The types of gases and dusts found in those galaxies, as well as their relative proportions, can help astronomers answer questions about the rate of star formation and how galaxies like SPT0311-58 interact with one another and with the interstellar medium.
ALMA has a fantastic habit of imaging these distant smudges and discerning the minutiae that comprise them, thereby assisting scientists in better understanding the birth, growth, and evolution of the Universe and everything in it, including the Solar System and Earth.
The observatory is situated high in the Atacama Desert of Chile, providing spectacularly clear and unpolluted views of the night sky. The array was also responsible for a recent discovery based on a study of the galaxy's gas content. The researchers discovered carbon monoxide in addition to water molecules.The team's research was accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
