James Webb Space Telescope Spots Strangely Looking Familiar Looking Celestial Object That May Upend Theories Of Galactic Formation
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
A distant barred spiral galaxy has been spotted by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, according to an international team who says the ancient celestial object is the most similar to the Milky Way of any that have been observed and could upset existing theories about galactic formation.
The ancient galaxy, which is believed to have formed relatively soon after the Big Bang, surprised astronomers involved with the discovery since barred spiral galaxies like the Milky Way could not have possibly formed before the universe reached approximately half of its current age.
The discovery upends previous thinking about galactic formation and reveals that galaxies were “much more chaotic in the early universe and very few had similar structures to the Milky Way,” according to Alexander de la Vega, a researcher with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the co-authors of a new paper describing the research.
Dubbed ceers-2112 by astronomers, it possesses a galactic bar structure running through its center, which is composed of stars.
“Nearly all bars are found in spiral galaxies,” de la Vega said. Although de la Vega and the research team are aware of the existence of such bars in non-spiral galaxies, they aren’t as common in other types of galaxies.
According to de la Vega, the discovery of ceers-2112 surprised him.
“Initially, I thought detecting and estimating properties of bars in galaxies like ceers-2112 would be fraught with measurement uncertainties,” he said, adding that the powerful imagery produced by Webb helped he and the international team to place “strong constraints on the size and shape of the bar.”
Astronomers previously held that galactic evolution processes occurred over several billions of years before bar-like structures of stars began to form, possibly because of instabilities in the structure of galaxies, or possibly even the influence of gravity from nearby galaxies.
The team thinks the bar present in ceers-2112 is a clue that could help astronomers understand the ways that galaxies evolve. Namely, that they may become ordered at a far quicker pace over cosmological timescales than researchers once thought.
If this observation is correct, it could also challenge our existing ideas about galactic formation, and could mean that “some aspects of our theories of galaxy formation and evolution need revision,” de la Vega said in a statement.
However, ceers-2112 is potentially challenging other areas of astronomy too, which include current models of galactic formation that will now be required to account for how bars can appear earlier than once thought.
“These models may need to adjust how much dark matter makes up galaxies in the early universe, as dark matter is believed to affect the rate at which bars form,” de la Vega said in a statement.
The new findings also potentially upset existing ideas that bars would not be present in younger galaxies, which are among the most distant observed by the James Webb Space Telescope.
A new paper describing the team’s research, “A Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3,” was published in the journal Nature on November 8, 2023.
https://thedebrief.org/james-webb-space-telescope-spots-strangely-familiar-looking-celestial-object-that-may-upend-theories-of-galactic-formation/
$200m Gift Propels Scientific Research in the Search for Life Beyond Earth
Nov 8, 2023
Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute, a non-profit scientific research organization, announced today a philanthropic gift of $200m from the estate of Franklin Antonio, a visionary supporter and catalyst of the work of the SETI Institute for more than 12 years. Co-founder of communications chip company, Qualcomm, Antonio passed away on May 13, 2022, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy to enable breakthrough science in the search for intelligent life beyond our world.
With more than 100 scientists actively conducting research across 173 separate programs, the SETI Institute explores six key science disciplines: Astronomy and Astrophysics; Exoplanets; Planetary Exploration; Astrobiology; Climate and bio-geoscience; and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
“Guided by our core mission and Franklin Antonio’s vision, we now have the opportunity to elevate and expedite our research and make new discoveries to benefit all humanity for generations to come,” said SETI Institutes President & CEO Bill Diamond. “In his memory, the SETI Institute will continue its pursuit of one of the biggest and most profound questions in all of science, a question as old as humanity itself – are we alone in the universe?”
This gift enables the SETI Institute to undertake more missions and expand research priorities to push the boundaries of human knowledge in exploring life beyond our planet and the origins of life here on Earth. Examples include:
Establish postdoctoral fellowships and internal grants for science and education programs
Enable the SETI Institute’s research base to expand and extend its reach globally through new international collaborations
Develop new educational programs and initiatives, particularly focused on reaching and engaging underserved communities
Support the development of innovative observational technologies and analytical instruments
“Not only was Franklin the primary benefactor of SETI research at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), but he was an integral part of the technical team. His extraordinary knowledge of communications technology was invaluable in upgrading the ATA to the world-class radio telescope instrument it is today,” said Dr. Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair of SETI Research at the SETI Institute and Director of SETI Research at the University of Oxford.
Currently, SETI-focused projects are eligible for only limited federal funding through research grants and otherwise depend entirely on philanthropic support and private funding. As such, Antonio’s gift will also serve to permanently endow core SETI programs and foster new global partnerships.
“This gift will impact all research domains of the SETI Institute,” said Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research. “It will provide our teams the freedom to pursue their own science priorities, and to examine the technological, philosophical and societal impact of their research on our daily lives here on Earth.”
https://www.seti.org/press-release/200m-gift-propels-scientific-research-search-life-beyond-earth
NASA Extends Diwali Wishes By Sharing Image Of A ‘Celestial Festival Of Lights’ Captured By Hubble
Nov 13, 2023
NASA has extended Diwali wishes to everyone who celebrates the festival by sharing on social media an image of a globular cluster captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The space agency has called the globular cluster a “celestial festival of lights”. The globular cluster is located 30,000 light years away from Earth, near the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/nasa-extends-diwali-wishes-by-sharing-image-of-a-celestial-festival-of-lights-captured-by-hubble-see-pic/ar-AA1jNTtk