Buzz
If you haven't heard yet, the universe is incredibly old. So old, in fact, that it simply appeared around 13.77 billion years ago, for reasons still unknown. Over this immense stretch of time, it’s had ample opportunity to unfold and evolve into the cosmos we observe today.
It’s nothing short of extraordinary that we can even peer that far into the cosmos, all thanks to light’s speed limit of 186,000 miles per second. This allows us to glimpse distant stars and galaxies as they were when their light first journeyed to us, billions of years ago. And in this ancient light, we uncover some truly astonishing, age-old phenomena.
10. A Mindbogglingly Enormous and Ancient Quasar
The quasar, known unremarkably as J0313-1806, stands as a legendary figure in the astronomical world due to its mass and age. Positioned 13.03 billion light-years away, this stellar object is already an impressive spectacle, even at such an early stage in the universe's history.
At this stage, when the universe was still under 5% of its current age, the black hole powering the quasar already possessed a staggering 1.6 billion times the mass of the Sun. This mind-boggling quantity of matter helps explain why quasars can often shine brighter than the entire galaxies surrounding them.
The quasar in question, though unassumingly named, was indeed active, releasing scorching gases at one-fifth the speed of light. It was also changing its surroundings, with astronomers observing intense star formation occurring within the host galaxy.
However, this black hole was far too massive and formed too early to have been fed by stars or created from the collapse of a star cluster. Instead, it likely bypassed these middle steps and emerged directly from large clumps of cold hydrogen gas that collapsed into a black hole, forming a monstrous 'baby' black hole with the mass of 10,000 stars.
9. A Galaxy That Appears to Have Skipped Billions of Years of Evolution
From time to time, galactic observations disrupt traditional cosmological models. One such anomaly is the galaxy known as ALMA J081740.86+135138.2. Located more than 12 billion light-years away, it is incredibly old, to put it mildly. Yet, it’s far too large and structured for something in the early stages of the universe’s development.
At this point, less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang, around 90% of the universe’s early galaxies were chaotic messes—clumps of gas and dust, often referred to as ‘train wrecks.’ However, ALMA J081740.86+135138.2 was already a standout, with a well-organized rotating disk, comparable in size to our Milky Way, stretching across 100,000 light-years. It was also a heavyweight, boasting 70 to 80 billion solar masses, which makes it quite formidable for a dimly shining ancient galaxy.
Considering the universe was only 1/10th its current age, this surprisingly substantial galaxy is an unexpected discovery from such an early period. Typically, it takes galaxies billions of years to evolve, gradually calming down as gas cools and gathers into structures like the Milky Way.
However, it’s possible for galaxies to skip this lengthy process if cold gas flows along dark matter filaments, like a cosmic freeway, allowing for the early formation of perfectly spiraling galaxies.
8. The Early Universe Wasn’t So Desolate
Approximately 300,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was engulfed in a thick, opaque fog made of neutral hydrogen, which blocked light and kept the young universe hidden from view. It was only when the first cosmic objects ignited, shining brightly and ionizing the hydrogen, that this “fog” began to clear and the universe became visible.
Thanks to an advanced gravity lensing technique, scientists can peer over 13 billion years into the past, observing the universe as it was between 500 million and 1 billion years old. While they didn’t find their main objective—the first stars ever born, known as Population III stars—the results were still remarkable.
However, they did uncover a surprising number of galaxies already in the process of forming. These galaxies were up to 100 times dimmer than anything previously observed and had smaller masses compared to those discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. This suggests the first stars may have emerged much earlier than originally thought.
Just 500 million years after the Big Bang, a surprisingly dense collection of galaxies had already begun to ionize the once opaque intergalactic fog of neutral hydrogen, clearing the cosmic haze.
7. The Oldest Galaxies…Are Closer Than You Think
You don’t have to look far into the depths of space to find the universe’s oldest galaxies—they’re actually within our cosmic ‘neighborhood,’ just a short astronomical distance away.
Some of the faintest dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, such as Segue-1, Bootes I, Tucana II, and Ursa Major I, are more than 13 billion years old. These satellite galaxies date back to the very dawn of the universe, making them some of the first galaxies to emerge—key players in dispelling the long-lasting darkness of the 'cosmic dark ages.'
These discoveries lend support to the 'Lambda-cold-dark-matter model,' which posits that dark matter particles (whatever they may be) are responsible for driving the evolution of the cosmos. More than 13 billion years ago, dark matter, through its gravitational pull, helped to gather matter into clumps, eventually forming the structures that we observe today.
6. A Solar Cemetery
Unless something catastrophic occurs, the Sun will meet its end in about five billion years. At that point, it will expand, shed its outer layers, and eventually settle down as a white dwarf.
A white dwarf, such as the star SDSS J122859.93+104032.9, is located roughly 410 light-years away. This star originally had about twice the mass of the Sun, but upon death, it expanded, lost its outer layers, and contracted into a white dwarf that is now only 70 percent as massive as the Sun. It is surrounded by a cosmic graveyard—a debris field made up of the remnants of the planets it once illuminated.
As the star met its end, it annihilated its solar system. Yet amidst the devastation, astronomers discovered a surprising remnant: a planetary fragment, a dense, heavy metal body that survived the destruction of its planetary system.
The fragment was detected by a stream of gas flowing from it. Its size remains uncertain, possibly as small as a kilometer across, or it could rival the largest asteroids in the solar system, stretching several hundred kilometers. It resides deep within a gravitational well believed to exert a pull 100,000 times stronger than Earth's. For it to have withstood such conditions, this fragment may be the ultra-dense, metallic core of a planet.
5. The Mysteriously Ancient Galactic Disk
DLA0817g, also known as the Wolfe Disk, stands out as an anomaly. This rotating disk galaxy, spinning at a speed of 170 miles per second, defies galactic formation expectations by existing when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old.
Astronomers once believed that galaxies like this required billions of years to form their stable, organized disks—around 6 billion years, or nearly half the universe’s age. However, DLA0817g, with its unexpected and well-formed structure, casts aside these established theories. Unlike other galaxies from the same period, which are chaotic and the result of massive collisions, DLA0817g remains notably orderly.
This suggests an alternative mechanism at play. If DLA0817g were absorbing streams of cool gas, like a colossal vacuum, it could maintain its shape while continuing to produce stars at a pace ten times faster than our own Milky Way.
4. Quasars Terrorized a Young Universe
Astronomers ventured deep into space-time and discovered a cluster of quasars at the farthest reaches of the universe, over 13 billion light-years away. This is such an unfathomable distance that the universe at this time was free of cosmic dust, as there hadn't been enough time for stars to expel the molecules that would eventually form it.
Among the 21 quasars found in this early universe, J0005-0006 and J0303-0019 stand out as the first ever observed without any surrounding dust. These belong to the most distant group of quasars detected, emerging in unexpected abundance less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
These 21 ancient quasars, from the infancy of the universe, are fueled by supermassive black holes containing the mass of 100 million suns. Because of their dust-free nature, astronomers consider these to be first-generation quasars. Yet, despite their ancient origins, these quasars are so energetically powerful, and modern astronomy so advanced, that researchers can observe them across the entire universe.
3. Amino Acids Form Early, Before the Planets
The abundance of amino acid building blocks plays a key role in determining the habitability of the universe. This potential has just been enhanced by the recent discovery that glycine, a simple but crucial amino acid for life, is easier to form than previously believed.
It was once thought that energy, such as ultraviolet radiation, was required to create glycine and other amino acids. However, researchers now claim that UV radiation is no longer necessary; glycine can form through the intriguing process of 'dark chemistry.'
In the vastness of interstellar clouds, tiny dust particles encased in ice collide with each other, akin to cosmic bumper cars. These collisions break apart and recombine to create fascinating compounds. The most exciting revelation is that glycine and other amino acids may form in these clouds long before they coalesce into actual celestial bodies.
This means that amino acids could be ready for life before a solar system even forms. They could then be spread across the universe by comets and other means, potentially setting the stage for the emergence of extraterrestrial life.
2. A Timeless Cosmic Relic
NGC 1277 is a remarkable galaxy, a cosmic relic that offers a glimpse into what galaxies looked like in the early universe. Like many ancient beings, it resists change and has 'remained essentially unchanged for the past 10 billion years.'
Located in the Perseus cluster, about 240 million light-years away, NGC 1277 stands out as a rare relic, one of over 1,000 galaxies in the cluster. Unlike most such relics found farther away, this one houses primarily old stars, born 10 billion years ago. These once brilliant blue stars have aged, now glowing red and resting in a peaceful phase of galactic inactivity. Despite housing twice as many stars as the Milky Way, NGC 1277 is only a quarter of its size.
NGC 1277 faces an ominous future. This galaxy of aging stars is speeding through space at a rate of two million miles per hour, likely too fast to merge with other galaxies or gather the gas needed to keep forming new stars.
1. A Star Nearly As Old As Existence Itself
A newly discovered star, 2MASS J18082002–5104378 B, is staggeringly ancient—1 billion years old. That's almost as old as the universe itself. This star will keep burning for trillions of years, outliving the current age of the cosmos by a ridiculous margin. And here's the twist: it wasn't found at the far edges of space but within our very own Milky Way.
In another twist, this star resides in the 'thin disk' of our galaxy, just a stone's throw away from the Sun's neighborhood. Unlike our Sun, however, this ancient star is so old that it might be only one generation removed from the very first stars that lit up the universe.
The first stars were almost entirely devoid of metals, which didn't exist back then. Metals only came into being much later, formed during intense fusion within stellar cores or during supernovae. These ancient stars, however, were composed mostly of hydrogen, helium, and lithium.
