Mysterious Ultra-Red Galaxies May Be Cosmic 'Missing Link'

Scientists have spied a new type of ultra-red galaxy lurking at the far reaches of the universe, a new study reports. Using NASA's Spitzer space telescope, the astronomers spotted four remarkably red galaxies nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth — meaning it's taken their light about 13 billion years to reach us. So researchers are seeing the galaxies as they were in the early days of the universe, which itself is about 13.7 billion years old.

"Hubble has shown us some of the first protogalaxies that formed, but nothing that looks like this," study co-author Giovanni Fazio, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. "In a sense, these galaxies might be a 'missing link' in galactic evolution."

www.space.com...

I think this is a really incredible & fascinating discovery,We seem to be consistently finding out new things about our universe just about everyday.

The research team found that these ultra-red galaxies shined a lot more brightly in the infrared light-spectrum compared to the visible wavelengths,which is exactly how the infrared-sensitive Spitzer was able to detect them in the first place.

They still do not have an explanation why these galaxies are so red.

Although they have theorized three possible reasons for the strikingly red hue and they are as follows:

1.) They may be extremely dusty.
2.) They could contain many old, red stars.
3.) The galaxy may be extremely distant, in which case the expansion of the universe has stretched its light to very long (and very red) wavelengths which is a caused by Redshift

artist's concept shows four extremely red galaxies that lie almost 13 billion light-years from Earth. Discovered using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, these galaxies appear to be physically associated and may be interacting. One galaxy shows signs of an active galactic nucleus, shown here as twin jets streaming out from a central black hole. CREDIT: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

The cosmos are abundantly full of wonders & mysteries alike,Just when we may think we have all the answers or figured something out the universe comes along to prove there is just so much more that we truly do not know.

I love cosmology & astronomy,tons to explore and learn about, while star gazing induces awe within myself of the limitless possibilities.

Hopefully you have found this as interesting as I have and I look forward to your responses & opinions!

Why red? Are they sure it's not just red shift? Maybe they're just moving away from us. I would assume they would have thought of that though, who knows.

Very very interesting.

13 billion light years away... makes me wonder what's happened to those galaxies in the time it took their light to get to us?

Nice .. s&f

Very interesting thread.
I would think those galaxies on the far reaches of the known universe are red because they are slowly dying.
They are running out of energy.
Many,many stars are becoming red giants,the signs of a dying star.

A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.5–10 solar masses) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius immense and the surface temperature low, somewhere from 5,000 K and lower. The appearance of the red giant is from yellow orange to red, including the spectral types K and M, but also class S stars and most carbon stars.

en.wikipedia.org...

Or,they are moving away from us faster then the rest of the galaxies,as you had mentioned redshift.

Just a theory.

Originally posted by JohnnySasaki
Why red? Are they sure it's not just red shift? Maybe they're just moving away from us. I would assume they would have thought of that though, who knows.

Although they have theorized three possible reasons for the strikingly red hue. 1.) it may be extremely dusty. 2.)it could contain many old, red stars. 3.) the galaxy may be extremely distant, in which case the expansion of the universe has stretched its light to very long (and very red) wavelengths which is a caused by Redshift

They basically did without stating "redshift".
I did though

ETA: If anyone does not know exactly what 'redshift' is,here is the cosmological definition relevant to the topic -

'Redshift' :

Redshifts are attributable to the Doppler effect, familiar in the changes in the apparent pitches of sirens and frequency of the sound waves emitted by speeding vehicles; an observed redshift due to the Doppler effect occurs whenever a light source moves away from an observer.

Cosmological redshift is seen due to the expansion of the universe, and sufficiently distant light sources (generally more than a few million light years away) show redshift corresponding to the rate of increase of their distance from Earth. Finally, gravitational redshifts are a relativistic effect observed in electromagnetic radiation moving out of gravitational fields.
Conversely, a decrease in wavelength is called blueshift and is generally seen when a light-emitting object moves toward an observer or when electromagnetic radiation moves into a gravitational field

reply to post by kdog1982

If they are dying/have died I don't think we'll be seeing it for a long time.

The light just reaching here would only be showing us their early years.

reply to post by Planet teleX

You know,you are right,now that I think about it.
Duh!
Chemical makeup of the material,maybe?

Evidence of relative motion is hardly astonishing to me.

That still blows my mind. It is so inconceivable that the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second or 670,616,629 mph....and it still took 13 billion years for that light to reach us.

Totally unreal. Whew!

Originally posted by Planet teleX
reply to post by kdog1982

 

If they are dying/have died I don't think we'll be seeing it for a long time.

The light just reaching here would only be showing us their early years.

.They were formed before our galaxy was,in my opinion,since they are further out away from us.Thus that would make them much older.
But,I could be wrong.

What this means is it didn't take a billion years for the first galaxies to form (though close, and all projections are rounded and speculative at best) and we are likely seeing the remanence of some of the earliest galaxies ever. These galaxies are likely long gone by now as the early mostly hydrogen star fields and galaxies had a shorter life than 2nd and 3rd generation star galaxies. Our sun being a 3rd generation star still is not expected to have a 13 billion year life expectancy.

This is a look at the Universe before many of the heavier elements formed, a look at mostly hydrogen and helium star clusters or galaxies. These galaxies likely are devoid of planets and any possible life.

Originally posted by Illustronic
What this means is it didn't take a billion years for the first galaxies to form (though close, and all projections are rounded and speculative at best) and we are likely seeing the remanence of some of the earliest galaxies ever. These galaxies are likely long gone by now as the early mostly hydrogen star fields and galaxies had a shorter life than 2nd and 3rd generation star galaxies. Our sun being a 3rd generation star still is not expected to have a 13 billion year life expectancy.

This is a look at the Universe before many of the heavier elements formed, a look at mostly hydrogen and helium star clusters or galaxies. These galaxies likely are devoid of planets and any possible life.

Ah,thanks for clearing that up for me.
That makes total sense,the lighter elements forming first before the heavier elements.

Originally posted by PerfectPerception
Scientists have spied a new type of ultra-red galaxy lurking at the far reaches of the universe, a new study reports. Using NASA's Spitzer space telescope, the astronomers spotted four remarkably red galaxies nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth — meaning it's taken their light about 13 billion years to reach us. So researchers are seeing the galaxies as they were in the early days of the universe, which itself is about 13.7 billion years old.

So...let's see...according to this, the material making up these galaxies would have been ejected at the time of the universe-creating Big Bang, some 13.7 billion years ago.

But the light from these galaxies has taken 13 billion years to reach Earth.

That means that this galactic material must have traveled 13 billion light years in the space of about 700 million years...and therefore have must have traveled to the position from which we are now observing it - at something like 18.5 times the speed of light.

Hmmm...

Something's wrong somewhere with this scenario.

reply to post by mobiusmale


Well,you know it's all based on theory and assumptions.
What does assume mean?
You know.
Making a ___ out of u and me.

And this is what they have assumed,I guess.







And our solar system is fairly young in comparison.

The Solar System[a] consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass (well over 99%) is in the Sun. Of the many objects that orbit the Sun, most of the mass is contained within eight relatively solitary planets[e] whose orbits are almost circular and lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants".

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by mobiusmale


Nope, something's wrong with your interpretation. It means these galaxies formed 700,000 years after the Big Bang if light took 13 billion years to reach us if everything started from a singularity. It took the Cosmic Microwave Background 13.7 light years to reach us, which is the Big Bang.

They are hoping to study the galaxies further, perhaps employing powerful ground-based instruments such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. And they'd like to find more examples of this new type of galactic "species."

ALMA (The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array)

After years of planning, construction and assembly, a gigantic observatory billed as the world's most complex array of ground-based telescopes has opened its eyes in South America and captured its first image.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, is now officially open for business high in the Chilean Andes. The huge $1.3 billion radio telescope, a collaboration of many nations and institutions, should help astronomers explore some of the coldest and most distant objects in the universe, researchers said.

Source