Twin galaxy in a cloud of dark matter

2017-12-07 12:38

Twin galaxy in a cloud of dark matter
In research recently published in Nature, astronomers drew attention to the ancient era of the Universe, known as the era reenter.

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Astronomers have discovered in space unusual phenomenon: twin galaxies only slightly inferior to the mass of the milky Way, is surrounded by a huge halo of dark matter, reports Rus.Media.

In research recently published in Nature, astronomers drew attention to the ancient era of the Universe, known as the era reenter (aka the “re-ionization”). This period covers the time period between 550 million years and 800 million years after the Big Bang. At this time, the first galaxies began to form galactic clusters, and hydrogen in their composition moved from a neutral to ionized state that made the Universe more transparent visually, and also much lighter.

Until now it was believed that most galaxies of that era was a dwarf with very low mass. However, the results of another study, also published in Nature, refute this claim and points to a supermassive black hole that belongs to the era of reionization and the oldest discovered to date.

Astronomers were able to find in space a couple galaxies that have collided with each other approximately 780 million years after the Big Bang. As a result, they formed a couple, and one of the galaxy is only slightly inferior to the mass of the milky Way. For comparison, the mass of our own galaxy is approximately 480 billion solar masses, while the mass of a galaxy SPT0311?58 reaches 440 billion solar masses. It is noteworthy that a couple of surrounds the galactic dark matter halo colossal size — its mass is about 100 billion solar masses.

But as scientists were able to detect halo dark matter, because it is invisible to the eye? All the matter in the gravitational impact that this substance affects galaxy. They themselves are very chaotic: they were confronted too soon, without receiving some kind of finished form (e.g., the milky Way has a spiral shape).

According to a press release from NRAO, in the same region of space, scientists hope to find more interesting galaxies. “If we are fortunate enough to find other similar objects, we can study the history of the early Universe and understand how galaxies were formed in this period,” explains Joaquin Vieira from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a press release.