The Ancient Galaxy So Normal, It’s Weird
The galaxy SPT0418–47, formed in the ancient Universe, looks entirely normal — and that’s what’s so strange about it.
An ancient galaxy called SPT0418–47 has been found near the edge of the observable Universe. This family of stars looks much like the Milky Way — and that is what makes this discovery so surprising — galaxies from the early Universe are supposed to look different than they do today.
Formed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, light from this far-flung galaxy took 12 billion years to reach Earth. The body was discovered in 2020 by astronomers at the South Pole Telescope (SPT).
Researchers found SPT0418–47 likely has a disk surrounding a central bulge like our own galaxy, but there is no evidence so far for spiral arms. This is the most ancient galaxy ever seen possessing a central bulge.
“This result represents a breakthrough in the field of galaxy formation, showing that the structures that we observe in nearby spiral galaxies and in our Milky Way were already in place 12 billion years ago,” says Francesca Rizzo, PhD student from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany.
The Impetuousness of Youth
