An international team of astronomers from Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, the USA and Switzerland discovered one of the first giant galaxies in our Universe. Radiation from a space object was recorded by a complex of ALMA radio telescopes (Atakama large millimeter antenna array). Light from the galaxy went to Earth 12.5 billion years. The discovery is reported in the Astrophysical Journal.
“As we found out, this is actually a massive, monstrous galaxy with as many stars as our Milky Way. Moreover, she is extremely active: she is 100 times faster than our Galaxy in the rate of formation of new stars, ”said one of the authors, Ivo Labbe of Swinburne University of Technology (Australia).
Scientists assumed that at the very early stage of the development of the Universe there were rapidly developing "monster galaxies", but so far there has been no evidence of their existence. Because of this, astronomers jokingly even compared similar objects with yetis - "snowmen".
Researchers note that the object is completely hidden by clouds of cosmic dust heated by stars, and the observed radiation is caused by the emission of tiny particles.
To look through the dust curtain and see the ancient galaxy, you need more powerful equipment, the researchers note. In March 2021, it is planned to launch the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which should thoroughly examine the discovered object and find other "monsters" hidden in the Universe.
“JWST will be able to look through the dust curtain and show how large these galaxies really are and how fast they grow,” said Christina Williams, astronomer of the University of Arizona, one of the authors of the work.