The most distant barred spiral galaxy ever observed has been discovered by a research team, including an astronomer from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), using the James Webb Space Telescope. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, challenges previous assumptions about galaxy evolution and could lead to changes in theoretical models of galaxy formation.
The galaxy, named ceers-2112, was formed soon after the Big Bang. This challenges prior beliefs that galaxies such as ceers-2112 couldn’t be observed before the universe reached half of its current age. Ceers-2112’s formation suggests that galaxies matured and became orderly much faster than previously thought.
The discovery of ceers-2112, which has a bar in its center, may lead to changes in at least two aspects of astronomy. Theoretical models of galaxy formation and evolution will need to account for the fact that some galaxies became stable enough to host bars very early in the universe’s history. Additionally, the discovery demonstrates that structures like bars can be detected when the universe was very young, paving the way for more bars to be discovered in the young universe.
Alexander de la Vega, a postdoctoral researcher at UCR and a member of the research team, helped estimate the redshift and properties of ceers-2112. His work on this discovery is expected to lead to a broader understanding of galaxy formation and evolution and to pave the way for more groundbreaking discoveries in the field of astronomy.
The research paper is titled “A Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3,” and could mark a significant shift in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
1 comment
Hello, this is Alexander de la Vega from UCR. Thank you for writing this article. Please state that the first author of this work is Luca Costantin at the Centro de Astrobiologia in Madrid, and that scientists at his institution led the work. As currently written, the article focuses on what I did and does not state who actually led this work.