GN-z11 is an extremely bright galaxy that existed just 420 million years ago, making it one of the oldest and most distant galaxies ever observed.
This two-part diagram shows evidence of a gaseous mass of helium in the halo surrounding galaxy GN-z11. The small box at the top right corner shows her GN-z11 in the galaxy. The box in the center shows a magnified image of the galaxy. The left-most box shows a map of helium gas in GN-z11's halo. This also includes clumps that are not visible in the infrared colors shown in the center panel. The spectrum in the bottom half of the graphic shows a distinct “fingerprint” of helium within the halo. The full spectrum shows no evidence of other elements, so the helium blob must be fairly pure, made from leftover hydrogen and helium gas from the Big Bang, with little contamination from heavier elements produced by stars. It suggests that there is no. Theory and simulations near particularly massive galaxies of these epochs predict that pockets of primordial gas must remain within the halo, and that these may collapse to form Population III clusters. doing. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Ralf Crawford, STScI.
GN-z11 is an early but moderately massive galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major.
First discovered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 2016, the galaxy is estimated to be just 420 million years old, or 3% of its current age.
GN-z11 is about 25 times smaller than the Milky Way, with only 1% of the mass of stars in our galaxy.
Remarkably, this galaxy is home to a supermassive black hole of approximately 1.6 million solar masses that is rapidly accreting matter.
using, near infrared spectrometer Astronomer Roberto Maiorino of the University of Cambridge and colleagues detected gaseous clumps of helium in the halo surrounding GN-z11 using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's (NIRSpec) instrument.
“The fact that we don't see anything but helium suggests that this mass must be fairly pure,” Maiorino said.
“This is what was predicted by theory and simulations near particularly massive galaxies of these times. There should be pockets of primordial gas left in the halo, and these collapse into population III. They may form star clusters.”
Finding never-before-seen “Population III stars” (first generation stars formed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium) is one of the most important goals of modern astrophysics.
These stars are expected to be very massive, very bright, and very hot.
Their expected characteristics are the presence of ionized helium and the absence of chemical elements heavier than helium.
The formation of the first stars and galaxies marked a fundamental change in the history of the universe, during which the universe went from a dark and relatively simple state to the highly structured and complex state we see today. It has evolved into an environment.
“In future Webb observations, we hope to probe GN-z11 more deeply and strengthen our case for Population III stars potentially forming within the halo,” the astronomers said.
The survey results are journal astronomy and astrophysics.
Source: www.sci.news
