There is oxygen in Jodes-Gs-Z14-0, a breath was born after the Big Bang: the primordial galaxies were born and matured more quickly than we thought.
Two different groups of astronomers have found oxygen in the most distant galaxy that knows -Jades-Gs-Z14-0, so far that his light has used 13.4 billion years To reach us. The discovery of this element changes our vision of this agglomeration of stars, and suggests that it is more mature than we believed. A fact that is leading to reconsider the rapidity with which primordial galaxies have formed and matured.
Perfect synergies. The presence of oxygen in Jodes-Gs-Z14-0 was confirmed by two different groups of astronomers, one of the Leiden Observatory, in the Netherlands, whose article has now been accepted for publication onAstrophysical Journaland one led by Stefano Carniani, of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, whose work has been accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics.
In both cases the discovery was possible thanks to the group of Alma telescopes (Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array) of the ESO (European Southern Observatory). Alma includes 66 high precision antennas scattered at distances up to 16 km. This radio interferometer is considered The most powerful telescope to observe the cold universeconsisting of powders and molecular gases. The Jodes-Gs-Z14-0 galaxy had been discovered last year thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope.
Scene stroke! Usually the girls girls are made up of young stars made of light elements such as hydrogen and helium. Star evolution then generates heavier elements such as oxygenwhich are dispersed through the galaxy when the stars die. Jades-Gs-Z14-0 shows us as it appeared When the universe was 300 million years old, 2% of the current age: so far, it was thought that in the universe so young it was not possible to find galaxies with such heavy elements.
Jodes-Gs-Z14-0’s observations with Alma contradict this idea, because they indicate that the galaxy has heavy elements about 10 times more than expected. As Sander Schouws, the first author of the Dutch study says: “It is like finding a teenager in a place where you only expect children”.
accelerated maturation. The discovery also has implications for other very ancient galaxies. «I was amazed by these unexpected results because they opened a new vision on the early stages of the evolution of the galaxies. The evidence that a galaxy is already mature in the child universe raises questions about when and how the galaxies have been formed »explains Stefano Carniani.
More accurate distances. Observation of oxygen with Alma also allowed to determine the distance with greater precision by Jades-Gs-Z14-0 and to descend to an uncertainty of just 0.005%.
A level of exactness similar to a waste within 5 cm on a distance of 1 km.
