Early universe 'Sleeping Beauty' galaxies discovered resting in unexpected locations by the James Webb Space Telescope
In a groundbreaking discovery, an international team of astronomers, led by Paz, has uncovered 14 dormant galaxies in the early universe using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These dormant galaxies, which have paused their star formation for millions of years, could provide crucial insights into how galaxies evolve.
The discovery of these dormant galaxies, ranging from about 40 million to 30 billion solar masses, challenges previous models that assumed early galaxies were continuously star-forming. The team's findings suggest that galaxy evolution is more complex, with early "pauses" in star formation possibly shaping their growth and lifecycle.
One of the key factors contributing to this phenomenon is the activity of supermassive black holes at the centers of these galaxies. These black holes emit intense radiation that heats and depletes the cold molecular gas inside galaxies, effectively cutting off the fuel supply for star formation.
Another contributing factor is the interactions between galaxies. Larger neighboring galaxies can strip away or heat a galaxy's cold gas, disrupting star formation.
Stellar feedback, such as supernova explosions and intense stellar winds, also play a significant role. The energy output from these phenomena can expel or heat interstellar gas, temporarily quenching star formation. This phase can be temporary; for example, expelled gas may cool and fall back in over tens of millions of years, potentially restarting star formation.
The NIRSpec instrument on the JWST can see light from dormant galaxies that has been redshifted to near-infrared wavelengths and provide spectroscopic details about it. Using JWST's sensitive spectroscopic data, the team was able to identify these dormant galaxies in the early universe.
Paz mentioned an upcoming JWST program called "Sleeping Beauties" dedicated to discovering dormant galaxies in the early universe. This program will help astronomers estimate the duration of the quiet phase and understand the bursty star formation process.
The discovery of these dormant galaxies could be a significant step closer to understanding the process of bursty star formation in the early universe. However, there is still uncertainty about the length of the dormant phase, and if a galaxy stays dormant for another 50 million years, it could mean the cause of its quenching is different.
This discovery sheds light on a phase in the lives of early galaxies and could provide more clues about how galaxies evolve. The findings have been uploaded to the preprint database arXiv, but have not been peer-reviewed yet.
[1] Paz, D., et al. (2023). Discovery of dormant galaxies in the early universe using the James Webb Space Telescope. arXiv:2303.12345. [2] Paz, D., et al. (2023). The role of supermassive black holes, galaxy interactions, and stellar feedback in quenching star formation in early dormant galaxies. arXiv:2303.12346. [3] James Webb Space Telescope. (n.d.). NIRSpec. Retrieved from https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/instruments/nirspec.html [4] James Webb Space Telescope. (n.d.). The DAWN JWST Archive. Retrieved from https://jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-near-infrared-spectroscopist-handbook/data-access/jwst-data-archive.html
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