Washington: Astronomers have discovered a far-flung trio of primitive galaxies that are nestled inside an enormous blob of primordial gas nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth.
Richard Ellis, the Steele Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and member of the research team, said that this exceedingly rare triple system, seen when the Universe was only 800 million years old, provides important insights into the earliest stages of galaxy formation during a period known as ` Cosmic Dawn,` when the Universe was first bathed in starlight.
He said that even more interesting, these galaxies appear poised to merge into a single massive galaxy, which could eventually evolve into something akin to the Milky Way.
Researchers first detected this object, which appeared to be a giant bubble of hot, ionized gas, in 2009. Dubbed Himiko (after a legendary queen of ancient Japan), it is nearly 10 times larger than typical galaxies of that era and comparable in size to our own Milky Way.
Subsequent observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope suggested that Himiko might represent a single galaxy, which would make it uncharacteristically massive for that period of the early Universe.
Masami Ouchi , an associate professor at the University of Tokyo who led the international team of astronomers from Japan and the United States, said that the new observations revealed that, rather than a single galaxy, Himiko harbors three distinct, bright sources, whose intense star formation is heating and ionizing this giant cloud of gas.
The results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
