Astrophysicists close to solving mystery of how cosmos’s giant galaxies formed

Astrophysicists claim they are close to solving an intergalactic mystery about the formation of the cosmos’s biggest galaxies which has baffled experts for decades. Researchers have discovered the birth sites of gargantuan elliptical galaxies which they claim offer new clues about how they were formed. The formation of these primordial galaxies, which look like bulging footballs in contrast to our flat disk-like galaxy (Milky Way), remains a mystery to scientists.

But now some University of Southampton academics, working with specialists across the world, claim their new study may finally unravel the mystery. Dr. Annagrazia Puglisi from University of Southampton, who co-authored the research, said it is probable that large flows of cold gas and collisions between galaxies in the early cosmos shaped these giant systems.

Dr. Puglisi added, “Two disk galaxies smashing together caused gas—the fuel from which stars are formed—to sink towards their center, generating trillions of new stars. These cosmic collisions happened some eight to 12 billion years ago, when the universe was in a much more active phase of its evolution.” “Our findings take us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will redefine our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early universe.”

The study was a collaboration between University of Southampton, the Purple Mountain Observatory in China and the Chinese Academy of Science, among others. Specialists analysed over 100 star-forming galaxies in the faraway universe employing the world’s largest radio telescope, known as ALMA, located in Chile’s Atacama desert.

The researchers made the discovery using a new method which looked at the distribution of light released by distant and highly-luminous galaxies, said study lead Dr. Qing-Hua Tan from the Purple Mountain Observatory. She added, “This is the first real evidence that spheroids form directly through intense episodes of star formation located in the cores of distant galaxies. Astrophysicists have sought to understand this process for decades.” “These galaxies form quickly—gas is sucked inwards to feed black holes and triggers bursts of stars, which are created at rates ten to 100 times faster than our Milky Way.”

Scientists used the open-source A3COSMOS and A3GOODSS archival projects which enabled them to collect high-quality observations of many faraway galaxies. The researchers say they will combine their findings with data taken from telescopes aboard the JWST and Euclid satellites, besides the Chinese Space Station, to map the stellar components of galaxies.

Dr. Puglisi added, “This will give us a more complete picture of early galaxy formation and deepen our understanding of how the universe has evolved since the beginning of time.”