Ta simulacija prikazuje, kako nastanejo zvezdne palice (levo) in kako nastanejo plinski tokovi (desno). Zvezdne palice igrajo pomembno vlogo pri razvoju Rimske ceste, saj usmerjajo plin v osrednje predele Rimske ceste, kjer se hitro spremeni v nove zvezde, običajno 10- do 100-krat hitreje kot preostali del Rimske ceste. Palice posredno pomagajo pri rasti supermasivnih črnih lukenj s kanaliziranjem plina del poti v središča galaksij. Zasluge: Francois Combs, Pariški observatorij

nove slike od[{” attribute=””>NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal for the first time galaxies with stellar bars — elongated features of stars stretching from the centers of galaxies into their outer disks — at a time when the universe was a mere 25% of its present age. The finding of so-called barred galaxies, similar to our Milky Way, this early in the universe will require astrophysicists to refine their theories of galaxy evolution.

Prior to JWST, images from the Hubble Space Telescope had never detected bars at such young epochs. In a Hubble image, one galaxy, EGS-23205, is little more than a disk-shaped smudge, but in the corresponding JWST image taken this past summer, it’s a beautiful spiral galaxy with a clear stellar bar.

“I took one look at these data, and I said, ‘We are dropping everything else!’” said Shardha Jogee, professor of astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. “The bars hardly visible in Hubble data just popped out in the JWST image, showing the tremendous power of JWST to see the underlying structure in galaxies,” she said, describing data from the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS), led by UT Austin professor, Steven Finkelstein.

The power of JWST to map galaxies at high resolution and at longer infrared wavelengths than Hubble allows it look through dust and unveil the underlying structure and mass of distant galaxies. This can be seen in these two images of the galaxy EGS23205, seen as it was about 11 billion years ago. In the HST image (left, taken in the near-infrared filter), the galaxy is little more than a disk-shaped smudge obscured by dust and impacted by the glare of young stars, but in the corresponding JWST mid-infrared image (taken this past summer), it’s a beautiful spiral galaxy with a clear stellar bar. Credit: NASA/CEERS/University of Texas at Austin

The team identified another barred galaxy, EGS-24268, also from about 11 billion years ago, which makes two barred galaxies existing farther back in time than any previously discovered.

In an article accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, they highlight these two galaxies and show examples of four other barred galaxies from more than 8 billion years ago.

“For this study, we are looking at a new regime where no one had used this kind of data or done this kind of quantitative analysis before,” said Yuchen “Kay” Guo, a graduate student who led the analysis, “so everything is new. It’s like going into a forest that nobody has ever gone into.”

Bars play an important role in galaxy evolution by funneling gas into the central regions, boosting star formation.

“Bars solve the supply chain problem in galaxies,” Jogee said. “Just like we need to bring raw material from the harbor to inland factories that make new products, a bar powerfully transports gas into the central region where the gas is rapidly converted into new stars at a rate typically 10 to 100 times faster than in the rest of the galaxy.”

Bars also help to grow supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies by channeling the gas part of the way.

Ta simulacija prikazuje, kako nastanejo zvezdne palice (levo) in kako nastanejo plinski tokovi (desno). Zvezdne palice igrajo pomembno vlogo pri razvoju Rimske ceste, saj usmerjajo plin v osrednje predele Rimske ceste, kjer se hitro spremeni v nove zvezde, običajno 10- do 100-krat hitreje kot preostali del Rimske ceste. Palice posredno pomagajo pri rasti supermasivnih črnih lukenj s kanaliziranjem plina del poti v središča galaksij. Zasluge: Francois Combs, Pariški observatorij

Odkritje palic v tako zgodnjih obdobjih na več načinov pretrese scenarije evolucije galaksij.

“To odkritje zgodnjih palic pomeni, da imajo modeli evolucije galaksij zdaj novo pot, po kateri so palice pospešile nastajanje novih zvezd v zgodnji starosti,” je dejal Jogi.

In obstoj teh zgodnjih stolpcev izpodbija teoretične modele, ker zahtevajo popravek fizike galaksije, da bi lahko napovedali pravo številčnost stolpcev. Ekipa bo preizkusila različne modele v svojem naslednjem dokumentu.

Montaža slik JWST, ki prikazujejo šest primerov črtastih galaksij, od katerih dve predstavljata najdaljši čas vpogleda v preteklost, ki je bil do danes kvantitativno identificiran in karakteriziran. Oznake v zgornjem levem kotu vsake slike prikazujejo čas pogleda nazaj za vsako galaksijo, ki sega od 8,4 do 11 milijard let nazaj (Gyr), ko je bilo vesolje le 40 % do 20 % svoje sedanje starosti. Zasluge: NASA/CEERS/Univerza v Teksasu v Austinu

JWST lahko razkrije strukture v oddaljenih galaksijah bolje kot Hubble iz dveh razlogov: Prvič, njegovo večje zrcalo mu daje večjo sposobnost zbiranja svetlobe, kar mu omogoča, da vidi dlje in z višjo ločljivostjo. Drugič, bolje vidi skozi prah, ker vidi na daljših infrardečih valovnih dolžinah kot Hubble.

Študenta dodiplomskega študija Eden Wise in Zhili Chen sta odigrala ključno vlogo v raziskavi, saj sta vizualno pregledala na stotine galaksij, našla nekaj, kar je bilo videti kot črte, zmanjšala seznam na nekaj deset za temeljitejšo matematično analizo za druge raziskovalce. Pomagala omejiti. Prihod

Referenca: Yuchen Guo, Sharda Jogi, Steven L. Finkelstein, Zilly Chen, Eden Wise, Michaela B. “Prvi pogled na stolpce Z > 1 v bližnjem infrardečem okvirju mirovanja z JWST Early Sears Imaging”, avtorji Bagley, Guillermo Barro, Stijn Vuyts, Dale D. Koszewski, Jehan S. Kartelpe, Elizabeth J. McGrath, Henry C. Ferguson, Bahram Mobasher, Mauro Giavillisco, Ray A. Lucas, George A. Zavala, Jennifer M. Lotz, Norman A. Grogin, Mark Huertas-Company, Jesus Vega-Ferrero, Nimish P. Hathi, Pablo Arrabal Haro, Mark Dickinson, Anton M. Coeckemore, KC Papovich, Nor Pirzkal, LY Aaron Yung, Brain E. Backhaus, Eric F. Bell, Antonello Calabro, Nikko J. Cleary, Rosemary T. Coogan, MC Cooper, Luca Costantin, Darren Croton, Kelsey Davis, Alexander de la Vega, Avishai Deckel, Maximilian Franco, Jonathan P. Gardner, Bene W. Holverda, Taylor A. Hutchison, Viraj Pandya, Pablo G. Perez-Gonzalez, Swara Rabindranath, Caitlin Rose, Jonathan R. Trump in Weichen Wang, odobreno, The Astrophysical Journal Letters,
arhiv: 2210.08658

Drugi soavtorji na UT Austin so Steven Finkelstein, Mikaela Bagley in Maximilian Franco. Več deset soavtorjev iz drugih ustanov je iz ZDA, Velike Britanije, Japonske, Španije, Francije, Italije, Avstralije in Izraela.

Delno za to raziskavo je Roland K. Financiranje so zagotovili Blumberg Endowment in Astronomy, Heising-Simons Foundation in NASA. Delo temelji na virih Texas Advanced Computing Center, vključno s Frontero, najmočnejšim superračunalnikom na ameriški univerzi.