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ISLAMABAD: Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found an ancient galaxy that is not spinning, surprising scientists who study how galaxies form, Space Daily reported on Sunday. The galaxy, called XMM-VID1-2075, existed when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. That makes it extremely old and distant from Earth.&nbsp; According to University of California-Davis (UC Davis) researchers, early galaxies are expected to rotate because gas flowing into them, combined with gravity, usually sets them spinning.&nbsp; But this galaxy showed no clear sign of rotation. Instead, its stars and material appear to move in a more random way. That pattern is normally seen in very large, older galaxies closer to Earth, which have had billions of years to change through repeated collisions and mergers.&nbsp; Ben Forrest, a UC Davis research scientist and lead author of the study published in Nature Astronomy, said the finding was surprising because the galaxy had reached this slow-moving state so early in cosmic history, according to his paper published in Nature Astronomy journal. The galaxy is also unusually massive for its age, with several times more stars than the Milky Way, and it had already stopped forming new stars.&nbsp; The team studied XMM-VID1-2075 and two other ancient galaxies using Webb&rsquo;s powerful instruments. One galaxy was clearly rotating, another looked disorganized, and XMM-VID1-2075 showed no rotation at all.&nbsp; The James Webb telescope made this possible because such faraway galaxies appear tiny and are very difficult to study from the ground.&nbsp; Scientists think one possible explanation is a major collision between two galaxies spinning in opposite directions. Such a crash could have canceled out much of the rotation.&nbsp; The researchers also noticed extra light to one side of the galaxy, which may point to another object interacting with it.&nbsp; The discovery matters because it gives astronomers a new way to test ideas about how galaxies grew in the young universe.&nbsp; Researchers now plan to search for more examples.&nbsp; Finding out whether XMM-VID1-2075 is unusual or part of a wider pattern could help scientists better understand how today&rsquo;s galaxies came to be.

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Astronomers using the James Webb Telescope discovered an ancient, massive galaxy without rotation, challenging current theories of galaxy formation and suggesting early cosmic collisions may have shaped its unusual structure.

James Webb telescope spots mysterious non-rotating early galaxy

A mysterious &quot;rogue&quot; planet has been observed gobbling six billion tonnes of gas and dust a second -- an unprecedented rate that blurs the line between planets and stars, astronomers said Thursday. Unlike Earth and other planets in our solar system which orbit the Sun, rogue planets float freely through the universe untethered to a star. Scientists estimate there could be trillions of rogue planets in our galaxy alone -- but they are difficult to spot because they mostly drift quietly along in perpetual night. These strange objects intrigue astronomers because they are &quot;neither a star nor a proper planet,&quot; Alexander Scholz, an astronomer at Scotland&#39;s University of St Andrews and co-author of a new study, told AFP. &quot;Their origin remains an open question: are they the lowest-mass objects formed like stars, or giant planets ejected from their birth systems?&quot; The team of researchers behind the new study were stunned to observe an astonishing growth spurt in a rogue planet around 620 light years from Earth in the constellation Chamaeleon. The planet, officially called Cha 1107-7626, has a mass five to 10 times bigger than Jupiter. Scholz explained that the object is &quot;still in its infancy,&quot; being roughly one or two million years old. The object grows by sucking in matter from a disc that surrounds it -- a process called accretion. But what the astronomers saw happen to Cha 1107-7626 &quot;blurs the line between stars and planets,&quot; study-co-author Belinda Damian said in a statement. In August last year, the planet suddenly started devouring matter from its disc at a record-breaking six-billion-tonnes per second -- eight times faster than a few months earlier. &quot;This is the strongest accretion episode ever recorded for a planetary-mass object,&quot; said lead study Victor Almendros-Abad of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Italy. &#39;Awe-inspiring&#39; By comparing light emitted before and during this binge-eating session, the scientists discovered that magnetic activity was playing a role in driving matter towards the object. This phenomenon has previously only been observed in stars. The chemistry in the disc also changed. Water vapour was detected in the disc during the accretion episode, but not beforehand. This is also something that has previously been observed in stars -- but never for a forming planet. Lead study author Ray Jayawardhana of Johns Hopkins University said the discovery implies &quot;that some objects comparable to giant planets form the way stars do, from contracting clouds of gas and dust accompanied by discs of their own, and they go through growth episodes just like newborn stars&quot;. No matter how weird, Cha 1107-7626 is still expected to have similar characteristics to huge planets, because it is of similar size. Scholz said that unlike stars, this object is &quot;not massive enough to ever have fusion reactions in the core&quot;. So, like other planets, &quot;it will cool inevitably as it gets older,&quot; he added. Amelia Bayo, another co-author of the study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, said &quot;the idea that a planetary object can behave like a star is awe-inspiring&quot;. It &quot;invites us to wonder what worlds beyond our own could be like during their nascent stages,&quot; she added. The observations were made by the European Southern Observatory&#39;s Very Large Telescope in Chile, and included data from the James Webb Space Telescope.

 An animation shows an intensifying flow of gas and dust as it falls on rogue planet Cha 1107-7626. ESO/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser)

Astronomers observed a rogue planet, Cha 1107-7626, rapidly accreting gas at a record rate, blurring lines between planets and stars in its early growth stage.

Articles tagged with "James Webb Space Telescope"

James Webb telescope spots mysterious non-rotating early galaxy

Strange 'rogue' planet spotted guzzling matter like a star

James Webb telescope spots mysterious non-rotating early galaxy