This simulation shows how a star rod (left) and a gas flow driven by a rod (right). Starbars play an important role in the evolution of galaxies by funneling gas into the central region of the galaxy, where it is rapidly converted into new stars, 10 to 100 times faster than the rate in the rest of the galaxy. The rods also indirectly help the formation of supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies by directing some of the gas. Credit: Françoise Combes, Paris Observatory
new photo from[{” attribute=””>NASA’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS), led by UT Austin professor, Steven Finkelstein.
The power of JWST to map galaxies at high resolution and at longer infrared wavelengths than Hubble allows it look through dust and unveil the underlying structure and mass of distant galaxies. This can be seen in these two images of the galaxy EGS23205, seen as it was about 11 billion years ago. In the HST image (left, taken in the near-infrared filter), the galaxy is little more than a disk-shaped smudge obscured by dust and impacted by the glare of young stars, but in the corresponding JWST mid-infrared image (taken this past summer), it’s a beautiful spiral galaxy with a clear stellar bar. Credit: NASA/CEERS/University of Texas at Austin
The team identified another barred galaxy, EGS-24268, also from about 11 billion years ago, which makes two barred galaxies existing farther back in time than any previously discovered.
In an article accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, they highlight these two galaxies and show examples of four other barred galaxies from more than 8 billion years ago.
“For this study, we are looking at a new regime where no one had used this kind of data or done this kind of quantitative analysis before,” said Yuchen “Kay” Guo, a graduate student who led the analysis, “so everything is new. It’s like going into a forest that nobody has ever gone into.”
Bars play an important role in galaxy evolution by funneling gas into the central regions, boosting star formation.
“Bars solve the supply chain problem in galaxies,” Jogee said. “Just like we need to bring raw material from the harbor to inland factories that make new products, a bar powerfully transports gas into the central region where the gas is rapidly converted into new stars at a rate typically 10 to 100 times faster than in the rest of the galaxy.”
Bars also help to grow supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies by channeling the gas part of the way.
This simulation shows how a star rod (left) and a gas flow driven by a rod (right). Starbars play an important role in the evolution of galaxies by funneling gas into the central region of the galaxy, where it is rapidly converted into new stars, 10 to 100 times faster than the rate in the rest of the galaxy. The rods also indirectly help the formation of supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies by directing some of the gas. Credit: Françoise Combes, Paris Observatory
The discovery of rod cells during these early times shook up the scenario for galaxy evolution in several ways.
“The early detection of these rods means that models of galactic evolution now have new pathways through the rods to accelerate the production of new stars at an early age,” Jogee said.
And the existence of these first bars challenges theoretical models because they have to correct galactic physics to predict the exact abundance of bars. The team will be testing a different model in their next article.
JWST’s image montage shows six examples of forbidden galaxies, two of which represent the highest recovery times calculated and characterized to date. The upper left label of each number indicates each galaxy’s retrograde time, ranging from 8.4 to 11 billion years ago (Gyr), when the universe was only 40% to 20% of its current age . Credit: NASA/CEERS/University of Texas at Austin
JWST can reveal structure in galaxies much better than Hubble for two reasons: First, its larger mirror gives it greater light-gathering ability, allowing it to see farther and in higher resolution. Second, it can see better through the dust because it observes at longer infrared wavelengths than the Hubble Space Telescope.
Scholars Eden Wise and Zilei Chen played a leading role in the research by visually examining hundreds of galaxies, looking for those that appeared to have bars, which helped narrow the list down to a few dozen so other researchers could analyze them. with more intensive calculations. . Approach.
References: “First look az > 1 bar in near-infrared frame remaining with initial CEERS image of JWST” by Yuchen Guo, Sharda Joji, Stephen L Finkelstein, Zili Chen, Aiden Weiss, Michaela P Bagley, Guillermo Barrow, Stegen & Witts, Dale D. Kosevski, Jehan S. Kartaltepe, Elizabeth J. McGrath, Henry C. Ferguson, Bahram Mobacher, Mauro Giavalescu, Ray A. Lucas, George A. Zavala, Jennifer M. Lutz, Norman A. Grojean, Mark Huertas-Company , Jesus Vega-Ferrero, Nimish P. Hathi, Pablo Arrabal Haro, Mark Dickinson, Anton M. Koekemoer, Casey Papovich, Nor Pirzkal, LY Aaron Yung, Bren E. Backhaus, Eric F. Bell, Antonello Calabrò, Nikko G. Cleary , Rosemary T. Cogan, MC Cooper, Luca Constantin, Darren Croton, Kelsey Davis, Alexandre de la Vega, Avishai Dekel, Maximilian Franco, Jonathan P. Gardner, Ben W. Holwerda, Taylor A. Hutchison, Viraj Pandya, Pablo G. Perez -Gonzalez, Swara Ravindranath, Caitlin Rose, Jonathan R. Trump, Weichen Wang Accepted, Astrophysics journal letter.
arXiv: 2210.08658
Other co-authors from the University of Austin are Stephen Finkelstein, Michaela Bagley and Maximilian Franco. Dozens of co-authors from other institutions come from the US, UK, Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Australia and Israel.
Funding for this research was provided in part by the Roland K. Blumberg Endowment in Astronomy, the Heising-Simons Foundation and NASA. The work draws on the resources of the Texas Center for Advanced Computing, including the Frontera, the most powerful supercomputer at an American university.
