Webb space telescope finds a giant galaxy that doesn’t spin

James Webb telescope spots a massive, non-spinning galaxy just 2 billion years after the Big Bang, challenging core theories of galactic evolution. | Contesto: cronaca

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• Webb space telescope finds a giant galaxy that doesn’t spin

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Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a massive galaxy that appears to have no rotation, a finding that defies current models of early universe evolution. The galaxy, which formed less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang, is the oldest and largest such object ever observed with a complete lack of spin—a trait typically seen only in much older, evolved galaxies. The discovery was reported by a team of researchers analyzing data from Webb’s near-infrared camera. According to the study, the galaxy’s stars are moving in random, chaotic orbits rather than in the orderly, rotating disk typical of young galaxies. This absence of rotation is usually associated with elliptical galaxies that have undergone mergers and internal collisions over billions of years. Finding such a structure in the early universe suggests that some galaxies may have formed through processes that are not yet fully understood. The finding challenges a foundational assumption of modern cosmology: that young galaxies, having just coalesced from swirling clouds of gas and dark matter, should still be spinning from their formation. The new data indicate that at least some early galaxies may have experienced violent mergers or other disruptive events that scrambled their rotation almost immediately after they formed. This would mean that the timeline for galactic evolution may be far more compressed than previously thought. “We’re seeing something that shouldn’t exist at this point in cosmic history,” said one of the lead astronomers involved in the research. “It’s like finding a perfectly smooth, round pebble in a riverbed full of jagged rocks—it tells us that the river’s story is more complicated than we assumed.” The team plans to conduct follow-up observations with Webb to determine whether this galaxy is an isolated anomaly or the first example of a broader population of early, non-rotating galaxies. The discovery also has implications for how galaxies like our own Milky Way evolved. If some galaxies can lose their rotation early on, it raises questions about how spiral structures, star formation rates, and black hole growth are affected by rotational dynamics. It...

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Categoria: cronaca