Oversized Ancient Galaxy Isn't What Astronomers First Thought

30 December 2023
By MICHELLE STARR

The early Universe was a wild time. In the first 2 billion years following the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, star formation positively roiled, and galaxies flared to life in the darkness, collided, and grew.

Interpreting the light that has traveled so far across space and time can be difficult, and we don't always get it right. In fact, the most powerful space telescope in operation has just revealed what might be a fascinating case of mistaken identity.

Discovered in 2013 as the source of rampant star formation just 880 million years after the Big Bang, a 'galaxy' named HFLS3 is not a galaxy at all. According to an analysis of data from the James Webb Space Telescope, HFLS3 is actually six galaxies undergoing an epic, giant collision at the dawn of time.

The study, led by astrophysicist Gareth Jones of the University of Oxford, has been accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, and is available on preprint server arXiv.

HFLS3 boggled scientists when they found it in data from the Herschel space telescope. There it was, sitting at the very beginning of the Universe during the Epoch of Reionization, pumping out stars at an astounding rate of some 3,000 solar masses per year. The Milky Way, by comparison, produces up to around 8 solar masses of stars per year, even though the two objects were thought to have around the same mass.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/oversized-ancient-galaxy-isnt-what-astronomers-first-thought