Astronomers using ALMA , one of the most advanced observatories in the world , have discovered a bombastic universe of Galax urceolata from the first 2 billion years of the universe . The finding came as a jounce to the researchers who were not expecting to see such a large number of optically unseeable galaxies .
As report inNature , these dark galaxies are both monolithic and forming lots of stars . They could potentially be the ascendant of the modern massive elliptical galaxies . The squad ’s start point was to apply the Hubble Space Telescope’sCANDELS subject . These are regions from the dawn of the universe and Hubble was able to spot the promising , most principal - shape galaxy from that epoch . These objective were undergoing a starburst , produce 1,000 unexampled star like our Sun in just a twelvemonth .
The fields were also imaged with NASA ’s Spitzer , an infrared scope . The observations showed astronomers that there were a lot more object out there than Hubble was adequate to of envision using seeable light . Unfortunately , Spitzer has limited answer so the scientists were n’t able to gather much insight into the dimension of these objects . Enter , ALMA .
ALMA , or theAtacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array , had what it took . Using its in high spirits firmness and sensitivity , the team was able to valuate the mass and star - formation charge per unit of 39 out of 63 of these black galaxies .
“ Previous studies have establish passing combat-ready star - forming galaxies in the early macrocosm , but their population is quite limited , ” lead author Tao Wang , from the University of Tokyo , the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission ( CEA ) , and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ( NAOJ ) , said in astatement . “ asterisk organization in the dark galaxies we discover is less vivid , but they are 100 times more abundant than the extreme starbursts . It is important to study such a major part of the story of the world to comprehend galaxy establishment . ”
These extragalactic nebula are form stars at a pace of 200 new Suns per class . This might not be as telling as the starburst ones from the same date of reference , but it is still a vast number . It ’s about 100 times more mavin than the Milky Way produces every twelvemonth .
“ By maintain this rate of star constitution , these ALMA - observe galaxies will likely transubstantiate into the first population of massive elliptic galaxies formed in the early universe , ” Centennial State - generator David Elbaz , also at CEA , added . “ But there is a problem . They are unexpectedly abundant . ”
Current models can not explain how there are so many monolithic dark galaxies . On top of that , they can not excuse how they have gotten so monolithic in such a ( relatively ) short amount of time . The first 2 billion years of the population stay to intrigue stargazer . And this research only tot up to the whodunit .