第1748期:Webb Telescope Discovers Huge Galaxies Dating Back 600 Million Years

Astronomers have discovered what appear to be huge galaxies dating back to within 600 million years of the Big Bang. The findings suggest the early universe may have quickly produced these extremely large galaxies. The new James Webb Space Telescope has seen even older galaxies, dating to within 300 million years of the beginning of the universe. But it is the size and maturity of these six galaxies that excite scientists. Ivo Labbe of Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology was the lead researcher. He and his team expected to find little galaxies this close to the beginning of the universe — not these very large ones.

天文学家发现了可追溯到大爆炸后 6 亿年内的巨大星系。这些发现表明，早期宇宙可能已经迅速产生了这些极大的星系。新的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜已经观测到更古老的星系，距宇宙诞生不到 3 亿年。但这六个星系的大小和成熟度让科学家们兴奋不已。澳大利亚斯威本科技大学的 Ivo Labbe 是首席研究员。他和他的团队希望在如此接近宇宙开端的地方找到小星系——而不是这些非常大的星系。

He said most galaxies at that time are still small and slowly grow over time. But, “there are a few monsters that fast-track to maturity. Why this is the case or how this would work is unknown.” Each of the six objects looks to weigh billions of times more than our sun. In one of them, the total weight of all its stars may be as much as 100 billion times greater than our sun, the scientists found. They recently published their findings in the journal Nature. Yet these galaxies are believed to be very compact. They have as many stars as our own Milky Way, but in a relatively small area in space, Labbe said.

他说，当时的大多数星系还很小，并且会随着时间慢慢变大。但是，“有一些怪物可以快速成熟。为什么会这样或如何运作尚不清楚。”这六个物体中的每一个看起来都比我们的太阳重数十亿倍。科学家们发现，其中一颗恒星的所有恒星的总重量可能比我们的太阳大 1000 亿倍。他们最近在《自然》杂志上发表了他们的发现。然而，这些星系被认为非常紧凑。 Labbe 说，它们拥有与我们银河系一样多的恒星，但在太空中相对较小的区域。

Labbe said he and his team did not think the results were real at first. They thought there could not be galaxies as mature as the Milky Way so early in time. The objects appeared so big and bright that some members of the team thought they had made a mistake. Pennsylvania State University’s Joel Leja, who took part in the study, calls them “universe breakers.” The finding that “massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” Leja said in a statement. “It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”

Labbe 说他和他的团队一开始并不认为结果是真实的。他们认为不可能有像银河系这么早的成熟星系。这些物体看起来又大又亮，以至于一些团队成员认为他们搞错了。参与这项研究的宾夕法尼亚州立大学的 Joel Leja 称他们为“宇宙破坏者”。莱贾在一份声明中说，“大质量星系的形成在宇宙历史的极早时期就开始了，这一发现颠覆了我们许多人认为的固定科学。” “事实证明，我们发现了一些意想不到的东西，它实际上给科学带来了问题。它使早期星系形成的全貌受到质疑。”

These galaxy observations were among the first data that came from the $10 billion Webb telescope. The telescope, from NASA and the European Space Agency, was launched just over a year ago to replace the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble is approaching its 33rd year of service. Webb is bigger and more powerful than Hubble. It can see through clouds of dust with its infrared vision and discover galaxies previously unseen. Scientists hope to eventually observe the first stars and galaxies formed following the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago. The researchers still are awaiting official confirmation of their research. They are careful to call them candidates for now. Leja said it is possible that a few of the objects might not be galaxies, but very large black holes.

这些星系观测是来自价值 100 亿美元的韦伯望远镜的首批数据之一。该望远镜由美国国家航空航天局和欧洲航天局于一年多前发射升空，以取代哈勃太空望远镜。哈勃望远镜即将迎来其服务的第 33 个年头。韦伯比哈勃更大更强大。它可以用红外视觉看穿尘埃云，发现以前看不见的星系。科学家们希望最终能观察到 138 亿年前宇宙形成后形成的第一批恒星和星系。研究人员仍在等待官方确认他们的研究。他们暂时谨慎地称他们为候选人。 Leja 说，其中一些物体可能不是星系，而是非常大的黑洞。

While some may prove to be smaller, Labbe said at least some of them will likely turn out to be huge galaxies. “The next year will tell us,” he said. One early lesson from Webb is "to let go of your expectations and be ready to be surprised,” Labbe added.

虽然有些可能会被证明更小，但拉贝说至少其中一些可能会变成巨大的星系。 “明年会告诉我们，”他说。韦伯的一个早期教训是“放下你的期望，准备好迎接惊喜，”拉贝补充道。