Posted on 03/21/2025 9:55:16 PM PDT by Red Badger
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered an object they've dubbed 'Big Wheel,' a gargantuan galaxy spinning through the early universe and growing larger by the second.
The Big Wheel alongside some of its neighbors. (Image credit: Weichen Wang et al. (2025), CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Deep observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an exceptionally large galaxy in the early universe. It's a cosmic giant whose light has travelled over 12 billion years to reach us. We've dubbed it the Big Wheel, with our findings published March 17 in Nature Astronomy.
This giant disk galaxy existed within the first two billion years after the Big Bang, meaning it formed when the universe was just 15% of its current age. It challenges what we know about how galaxies form.
What is a disk galaxy?
Picture a galaxy like our own Milky Way: a flat, rotating structure made up of stars, gas and dust, often surrounded by an extensive halo of unseen dark matter.
Disk galaxies typically have clear spiral arms extending outward from a dense central region. Our Milky Way itself is a disk galaxy, characterized by beautiful spiral arms that wrap around its center.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Ping!.......................
Thanks Red Badger.
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“...a cosmic giant whose light has traveled
over 12 billion years to reach us...”
-
So the image is what it looked like 12 billion years ago.
Yes.
It may not even exist now..................
I worked at Americas largest telescope(Kecks) for ten years.
One thing I could never resolve is this fascination with things that may no longer exist.
I equate it to “grave digging”.
I love looking at a clear night sky.
But I know the light of our closest
star besides our sun, took 4 years to get here.
Consider all the species that have evolved and vanished out there.
Between JWST data and Euclid data, my head is reeling...
I’d like to have a crack at all this data, but, at 91.4, I’ll have to stay above ground until I’m 110...
Oh well, time to get back in the gym...🙄😥
At least you will still get your Social Security direct deposits.................
Astronomers are fascinated with "things that may no longer exist" precisely because they no longer exist - as well as because they hope to learn something.
I equate it to “grave digging”.
So you also fail to understand why archeologists are enthusiastic about their finds?
I worked at Americas largest telescope(Kecks) for ten years.
Until they found out that you were using "Windex" to clean the main mirror?
(Ducks!)
Regards,
“Until they found out that you were using “Windex” to clean the main mirror?”
It is actually “mirrors”. We used dry ice to clean them.
You don’t know much about 10 meter plus telescopes, do you?
Since I was an engineer there and had the opportunity to visit others, What has to go on to make “Science”,
is very impressive.
Assuming that the expansion of space is constant and consistrnt. Assuming that red light shift is constant and consistent. Assuming the speed of light is constant and consistent.
You didn't understand that I was being humorous?
"Ducks?"
Regards,
Technically, everything we see happened in the past.
too bad the left cant be among that list!
I guess I didn’t get your humor.
Too many years in the industry.
Hard to believe things that massive are that
delicate.
Almost went to work at UofA on spin casting. Ended up in oceanographic research instead.
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