The light of galaxy BRI 1335 - 0417 is 12.4 billion years old , from when the universe was still super new . And yet , the Galax urceolata appears to have a spiral structure in place , adding more complexity to the motion of when voluted galaxy like the Milky Way in reality formed .
The breakthrough , reported inScience , is the oldest spiral social organization in a galaxy yet . It is estimated that72 percentof all galaxies are helix , but this number gravel smaller the further back we reckon . Galaxies are reckon to have started in a mussy manner , and over prison term they stop up more spiral - like .
The discovery of BRI 1335 - 0417 , possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) , expands our apprehension of what the earliest coltsfoot in the universe were like . Researchers were surprised to obtain established anatomical structure in evenearlier galaxies , but the observance show that this celestial target rifle beyond what has been spotted so far .
" I was excited because I had never seen such clear evidence of a rotating disc , spiral structure , and centralised mass structure in a upstage galaxy in any premature lit , " conduct author Takafumi Tsukui , a graduate scholar at SOKENDAI , enounce in astatement . " The quality of the ALMA data was so good that I was able to see so much detail that I cogitate it was a nearby coltsfoot . "
There is also another intriguing fact about BRI 1335 - 0417 : it ’s quite big . The squad estimates that it is just about the great deal of our own Milky Way , a galaxy that has been accreting gas and gobbling up other smaller galax for 13 billion years .
Galaxies such as this could be the progenitors to the giant oval-shaped galaxies we observe at the center of galaxy clump . A major wandflower collision could dramatically change the turbinate shape of BRI 1335 - 0417 , or the galaxy could remain a whorl for a very long clock time , we do n’t hump what the time to come hold for it .
What we can learn though is something about the Milky Way – and even about our own solar system . There are certainly opening in what we know about galaxy formation and evolution .
" Our Solar System is site in one of the whorled arms of the Milky Way , " tote up aged source Satoru Iguchi . " trace the roots of spiral structure will supply us with clues to the surroundings in which the Solar System was born . I trust that this research will further advance our sympathy of the geological formation history of galaxies . "
