The groundbreaking discovery was made in SPT0418-47, a galaxy obscured by dust that existed when the universe was only about 10% of its current age.
According to Sci-News , a research team led by Professor Joaquin Vieira from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) analyzed data from James Webb (developed and operated by NASA). They found the existence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) mixed in galactic dust particles glowing at infrared wavelengths.
The red galaxy SPT0418-47 with its organic molecules glows in orange light, while a foreground galaxy is highlighted in blue. (Image: NASA/ESA/CSA)
SPT0418-47 is 12 billion light years away from Earth, meaning it takes 12 billion years for light to reach us. This means we’re looking at what the galaxy looked like 12 billion years ago, in the middle of the universe’s distant past.
So the PAHs it contains — complex organic molecules that are the basis of life today — are also the oldest organic molecules ever found.
Spectroscopic data from the galaxy also show that the interstellar gas inside it is enriched in heavy elements. This means that the galaxy has been through a very active period of time, with many generations of stars being born and dying, according to the paper published in the scientific journal Nature.
The evolution of the universe - which started out with just a few elements - was driven by the creation of more and more elements in the nuclear "reactions" of stars. When a star reaches the end of its life and explodes, it adds new elements, making the chemical composition of the universe more and more diverse.
So this study also adds to the growing evidence that the universe evolved very rapidly in its early stages, a horizon that scientists are always eager to explore further to explain our own existence.
At the same time, it also offers a new way to explore the past, through dust grains around galaxies, which have absorbed half the radiation emitted by nearby stars throughout history and shine under the lenses of infrared observatories.
(Source: Lao Dong Newspaper)
Useful
Emotion
Creative
Unique
Source
Comment (0)