Oldest Spiral Galaxy Ever Seen May Reveal Secrets About the Milky Way

[Judi Lynn]

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Senior Writer | November 7, 2017 07:17am ET

Astronomers have uncovered an ancient cosmic artifact 11 billion light-years from Earth: the oldest spiral galaxy ever seen.

The newly discovered galaxy, known as A1689B11, is an ancestor of modern spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way, which are defined by long tentacles of gas, dust and stars that wrap around the galaxy's central bulge.

"Spiral galaxies are exceptionally rare in the early universe, and this discovery opens the door to investigating how galaxies transition from highly chaotic, turbulent discs to tranquil, thin discs like those of our own Milky Way galaxy," Renyue Cen, a co-author of the new paper describing the findings and a senior research astronomer at Princeton University, said in a statement.

Galaxies come in many different shapes and sizes, and researchers think many spiral galaxies form mainly through mergers of smaller elliptical galaxies, although many factors can affect how a galaxy changes its shape over time, according to NASA. Elliptical galaxies are disks that can be mostly circular or very elongated but lack the arm-like features of spiral galaxies.

More:
https://www.space.com/38690-oldest-spiral-galaxy-ever-seen-detected.html?utm_source=notification

[Kleveland]

1. What about Mars bars? n/t

[get the red out]

2. Fascinating

Love this stuff, thanks for posting.