(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of astronomers using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has confirmed the discovery of the distant galaxy GHZ2/GLASS-z12, one of the oldest on record. Large volumes of oxygen helped scientists find it.
The authors of the work remind that the initially distant galaxy GHZ2/GLASS-z12 was identified during the analysis of the JWST GLASS sky survey – this is a survey that collects data on the oldest objects in the Universe and the most massive clusters of galaxies.
In a new study, a group of astronomers set out to confirm or refute the fact of the existence of the identified galaxy.
The task was not easy, since the GHZ2/GLASS-z12 galaxy, by its age, belongs to the earliest stage of the development of the Universe and is one of the oldest space objects known to man.
For observations, scientists used a set of different broadband color filters. The researchers say that the light from the galaxy traveled to Earth for a very long time, more than 12 billion years.
The expansion of the universe has shifted its color towards the red end of the visible light spectrum.
It was the red color of GHZ2/GLASS-z12 that helped astronomers identify it as one of the most compelling candidates for being the most distant and oldest galaxy on record.
The ALMA array, designed for the analysis of spectral lines, helped. He not only made it possible to confirm the existence of an ancient galaxy, but also clarified its true age.
It is noteworthy that the object was identified by the spectral emission line associated with oxygen. There was a lot of this element in a distant galaxy.
However, the researchers note that oxygen tends to be the most abundant element in distant galaxies due to its relatively short formation period.
ALMA was able to detect the oxygen emission line and measure its shift towards the red end of the spectrum.
As a result, the newly discovered galaxy appeared before scientists in the form in which it was only 367 million years after the Big Bang.
“The bright line emission indicates that this galaxy has rapidly enriched its gas reservoirs with elements heavier than hydrogen and helium,” says Dr. Jorge Zavala, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
“This gives us some clues about the formation and evolution of first-generation stars and their The small distance we see between gaseous oxygen and stellar radiation may also indicate that these early galaxies were affected by violent explosions that swept gas from the center of the galaxies into their surroundings and even beyond.”
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