Detecting spiral galaxies in the early universe

The results of American astronomers published in Nature on July 18 said they were surprised to find a spiral galaxy forming nearly 11 billion years ago.

Dubbed BX442 , this ancient star cluster was discovered in a survey of nearly 300 distant galaxies using the Hubble space telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

BX442 Galaxy

Located 1.7 billion light-years from Earth, this galaxy was formed about 3 billion years after the universe was born in a superheated explosion called Big Bang.

Alice Shapley of the University of California (Los Angeles) shared: "We were very surprised and did not have any warning signs, BX442 and its spiral galaxy appear through the image of the lens. I can't quite believe this, nor do we think this galaxy has such a grand picture, because most star-forming galaxies in the early universe often have sporadic and bizarre patterns. ".

BX442 is considered to be the first "beautiful model" spiral galaxy discovered quite early in history.

Called the spiral galaxy because the BX442 has a separate spiral-shaped branch structure in the opposite direction from the center to the galaxy disk, the model resembles an S similar to our Milky Way. Other galaxies often have chaotic and bizarre designs, when they meet high temperature conditions they are turned into spiral form. So the discovery of BX442 tells us the relationship between the original chaotic galaxies and the spiral-shaped galaxies that we see today.

This special discovery will also help astronomers better understand the galaxy's mysterious formation process in the vast universe.