Spiral galaxies represent one of the most spectacular features of our universe. Among them, the spiral galaxies of the distant universe contain important information regarding their origin and evolution. However, we have had a limited understanding of these galaxies because they are too distant to study in detail. “While these galaxies have already been detected among previous observations using the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, their limited spatial resolution and/or sensitivity did not allow us to study their shapes and detailed properties,” says junior researcher Yoshinobu Fudamoto of Waseda University. in Japan, which studies the evolution of galaxies.
Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken things to the next level. In its first-ever imaging of the galaxy cluster, SMACS J0723.3-7327, JWST managed to capture infrared images of a population of red spiral galaxies at unprecedented resolution, revealing their morphology in great detail!
In this context, in a recent article published in Letters from the Astrophysical Journal On October 21, 2022, a team of researchers including junior researcher Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Prof. Akio K. Inoue, and Dr. Yuma Sugahara from Waseda University, Japan revealed startling information regarding these red spiral galaxies. Of the many red spiral galaxies detected, the researchers focused on the two most extremely red galaxies, RS13 and RS14. Using spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis, the researchers measured the energy distribution over a wide range of wavelengths for these galaxies. SED analysis revealed that these red spiral galaxies belong to the early universe of a period known as “cosmic noon” (8-10 billion years ago), which followed the Big Bang and “cosmic dawn”. Remarkably, these are among the most distant spiral galaxies known to date.
Rare red spiral galaxies make up only 2% of the galaxies in the local universe. This discovery of red spiral galaxies in the early universe, from the JWST observation covering only an insignificant fraction of space, suggests that such spiral galaxies existed in large numbers in the early universe.
The researchers further found that one of the red spiral galaxies, RS14, is a “passive” (non-star-forming) spiral galaxy, contrary to the intuitive expectation that galaxies in the early universe would actively form. stars. This detection of a passive spiral galaxy within the limited field of view of the JWST is particularly surprising, as it suggests that such passive spiral galaxies might also exist in large numbers in the early universe.
Overall, the results of this study greatly improve our knowledge of red spiral galaxies and the universe as a whole. “Our study showed for the first time that passive spiral galaxies might be abundant in the early universe. Although this paper is a pilot study of spiral galaxies in the early universe, confirmation and expansion of this study would greatly influence our understanding of the formation and evolution of galactic morphologies,” concludes Fudamoto.
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