Two super telescopes have confirmed that the ancient galaxy CEERS-2112 is indeed a perfect replica of the Milky Way, the “monster” galaxy that Earth inhabits. This is completely nonsensical.
According to Science Alert, many factors influence the shape of a galaxy, from collisions and mergers to the density of neighboring galaxies.
For instance, our Milky Way, the “monster” galaxy, has acquired its enormous shape and size today through a long evolutionary process involving around 20 collisions and absorption of other galaxies.
Therefore, widely accepted astronomical theories suggest that such “monsters” like the Milky Way—a barred spiral galaxy—did not exist until about 8 billion years ago.
The emergence of CEERS-2112 has overturned everything.
Graphic depicting an ancient galaxy with red hues from the redshift phenomena caused by the expanding universe – (Image: SPACE.COM).
In a publication in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists led by astronomer Luca Costantin from the Center for Astrobiology (CAB, INTA-CSIC) in Madrid, Spain, reported that CEERS-2112 emerged just 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
This means we are seeing its image from 12 billion years ago, at a fairly mature age.
After traveling for billions of years, its “transcendent” light has reached the James Webb Space Telescope. Utilizing additional resources from the Hubble Telescope, the nature of this ancient system has been unveiled.
It is an extremely complex spiral structure, featuring a bar similar to that of the Milky Way, possibly just slightly smaller.
Although this galaxy is too far and too dim to observe its spiral arms in detail, the detection of a thick central bar is enough to convince astronomers that CEERS-2112 has grown very large and complex for its age.
The bar of the galaxy consists of a cluster of stars gathered in the central region, creating a structure resembling a bar.
According to co-author Alexander de la Vega from the University of California, Riverside, this indicates that CEERS-2112 matured and organized faster than previously thought regarding galaxy formation and evolution.
This means some fundamental theories will need to be rewritten.
Previously, it was believed that bar structures could not form or exist long-term in the primitive universe, where young galaxies are very chaotic and unstable.
This majestic spiral region may also result from many “monster” behaviors similar to those the Milky Way exhibited in history, which involved absorbing other galaxies to grow.
However, with an age not exceeding 2 billion years at the time of observation, it barely had enough time to do even a fraction of what we believe contributed to the Milky Way’s greatness today.
This discovery, combined with a series of staggering findings about the early universe, including excessively bright galaxies or rapidly developing supermassive black holes, has scientists hopeful that further data from James Webb will uncover more “nonsensical” objects like CEERS-2112, helping to resolve the mysteries of the few billion years following the Big Bang.
