{"id":791274,"date":"2024-11-19T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T13:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=791274"},"modified":"2024-11-19T08:53:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T13:53:00","slug":"red-monsters-were-massive-galaxies-in-the-early-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=791274","title":{"rendered":"Red monsters were massive galaxies in the early universe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Red Monsters in the Early Universe\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/itb3LJwMF-8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><em>Watch as EarthSky\u2019s Will Triggs talks about red monsters, massive galaxies in the early universe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Makes a great gift. Get yours today!<\/p>\n<h3>Red monsters were giant early galaxies<\/h3>\n<p>Astronomers thought galaxies in the early universe wouldn\u2019t be too massive, because star production was just getting started. But the Webb Space Telescope recently discovered three \u201cred monsters,\u201d or massive, dusty galaxies that existed within the first billion years after the Big Bang. An international team of scientists said on November 13, 2024, that these galaxies were nearly as large as our own Milky Way galaxy. Therefore, our current models of galaxy formation will need some rethinking.<\/p>\n<p>Presently, the leading theory of galaxy formation states that they form slowly, within halos of dark matter. Scientists thought that the gas trapped by these halos wasn\u2019t particularly efficient at forming stars and, eventually, galaxies. But based on how early these massive galaxies appeared, the process must be more efficient than suspected. <\/p>\n<p>Co-author Stijn Wuyts of Bath University said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Finding three such massive beasts among the sample poses a tantalizing puzzle. Many processes in galaxy evolution have a tendency to introduce a rate-limiting step in how efficiently gas can convert into stars, yet somehow these red monsters appear to have swiftly evaded most of these hurdles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The team published their results in the peer-reviewed journal <em>Nature<\/em> on November 13, 2024.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_492894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-492894\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-492894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Webb Space Telescope captured these 3 red monsters. The red monsters were extremely massive, dusty galaxies that existed in the 1st billion years after the Big Bang. Image via NASA\/ CSA\/ ESA\/ M. Xiao\/ P. A. Oesch (University of Geneva)\/ G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute)\/ Dawn JWST Archive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>How did they find the red monsters?<\/h3>\n<p>The Webb Space Telescope has powerful infrared vision that lets astronomers peer through dusty environments and get a peek at the early universe. In November 2022 and February 2023, Webb took long looks deep into space during the First Reionization Epoch Spectroscopically Complete Observations (FRESCO) survey.<\/p>\n<p>While most of the galaxies in the survey fit the current model for galaxy formation, there were three surprises: the red monsters. These galaxies form stars twice as efficiently as the others. And because they have a high dust content, they appear redder, which earned them their name. Co-author David Elbaz of CEA Paris-Saclay said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The massive properties of these \u2018red monsters\u2019 were hardly determined before JWST [James Webb Space Telescope], as they are optically invisible due to dust attenuation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>FRESCO\u2019s goal was to: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2026 systematically analyze a complete sample of emission-line galaxies within the first billion years of cosmic history.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Emission-line galaxies are those that have strong emission lines in their spectra. So certain wavelengths appear brighter in these galaxies. These bright emission lines helped the astronomers pinpoint their distance from us. Then, knowing their spectra and distances led to a measurement of how many stars were within the galaxies.<\/p>\n<p>Co-author Pascal Oesch of the University of Geneva said spectroscopy with Webb enabled them to: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>identify and study the growth of galaxies over time, and to obtain a clearer picture of how stellar mass accumulates over the course of cosmic history.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>More research ahead<\/h3>\n<p>The discovery of the red monsters isn\u2019t a complete upheaval of what we understand about the formation of stars and galaxies in the early universe. But it does contribute to the existing question of how there can be so many massive galaxies so close to the Big Bang. <\/p>\n<p>Lead author Mengyuan Xiao of the University of Geneva said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Our findings are reshaping our understanding of galaxy formation in the early universe. These results indicate that galaxies in the early universe could form stars with unexpected efficiency. As we study these galaxies in more depth, they will offer new insights into the conditions that shaped the universe\u2019s earliest epochs. The \u2018red monsters\u2019 are just the beginning of a new era in our exploration of the early universe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Bottom line: Red monsters were massive galaxies in the early universe. Astronomers aren\u2019t yet sure how these galaxies became so massive so soon after the Big Bang.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Accelerated formation of ultra-massive galaxies in the first billion years <\/p>\n<p>Via University of Geneva<\/p>\n<p>Via Bath University<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>Kelly Kizer Whitt<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Kelly Kizer Whitt &#8211; EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube &#8211; writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She&#8217;s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children&#8217;s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/red-monsters-massive-galaxies-early-universe\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch as EarthSky\u2019s Will Triggs talks about red monsters, massive galaxies in the early universe. The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Makes&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":791275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=791274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/791275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=791274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=791274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=791274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}