Galaxy in space dating back to 12.4 billion years ago is the oldest spiral galaxy
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Did you know that the galaxy in space we live in, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy?
In a spiral galaxy, the stars, gas and dust are gathered in spiral arms that spread outward from the galaxy’s centre. The centre is known as the bulge. Our own solar system sits in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.
Spiral galaxies are very common in the universe today. But scientists have observed that the occurrence of spiral galaxies become lesser as we look deeper into the past.
Recently, two Japanese scientists were looking at data captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) * telescope in Chile.
They noticed a spiral galaxy in space called BRI 1335-0417. They found that this galaxy existed 12.4 billion years ago. This makes it the oldest spiral galaxy to have existed. This galaxy formed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang.
BRI 1335-0417’s total mass of the stars and matter is estimated to be roughly equal to that of the Milky Way.
Scientists say that studying how spiral galaxies change over time can help us understand how the solar system would have been born.
* The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array or ALMA is made of 66 radio telescopes and is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is one of the most expensive telescope that is ground based.
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