This is what we know about the HD1

An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has discovered what could be The farthest and oldest galaxy ever observed. An interesting astronomical object, called HD1, is located at a distance of 33.4 billion light-years from Earth, if we take into account the expansion of the universe, and it existed already only 330 million years after the Big Bang. We see it now as it was 13.5 billion years ago.

The discovery of this thing raises questions for researchers. In an article published in Monthly notifications of letters of the Royal Astronomical SocietyScientists propose two possible theories about what exactly this early discovery of the universe was. “Answering questions about the nature of such a remote source can be difficult,” He says Fabio Paccucci, lead author of the study.

Is it the oldest and farthest galaxy?

HD1 is very bright at ultraviolet wavelengths, which could mean that whatever was producing its light was extremely hot. Thus, according to astronomers, two ideas emerge: either there is stars forming ‘burst’ Much larger than we would normally expect in a galaxy that is relatively small in size or once home to Active supermassive black hole.

In the first case, HD1 should have produced the equivalent of more than a hundred stars with the mass of our Sun each year, a phenomenon that is difficult for experts to explain. One possibility is that this galaxy may not have formed ordinary stars, but rather Cluster C stars that were much larger and hotter than regular nearby stars.

“The first group of stars that formed in the universe was much more massive, brighter and hotter than modern stars. If we assume that the stars produced in HD1 are these first stars, or III stars, then their properties can be explained further. In fact, the stars of the third group are capable of can produce more ultraviolet light than normal stars, which may brighten HD1’s intense ultraviolet light.”

Another theory is that HD1 could be home to a huge coil Black hole enormous. Now, the existence of a black hole of 100 million solar masses in the early universe would be a challenge to science, because Can’t explain how it was formed. HD1 is located only 330 million years from the Big Bang, which experts consider a very short time for the formation of such a large black hole.

Avi Loeb, co-author of the study, is also known for promoting some controversial ideas like this one ‘Oumuamua was a strange ship And that Our universe could have been created in a labexplains it in Formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, HD1’s black hole must have grown from a massive seed at an unprecedented rate. “Again, nature seems more creative than us,” he says.

The team explains that HD1 was discovered thanks to observational work carried out with the telescopes Subaru (Hawaii), VISTA Telescope (Chile), UKIRT (UK) and Spitzer (US). He then made follow-up observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (Chile) to confirm the distance, which is about 100 million light-years from GN-z11the current outermost galaxy.

Later this year, the team hopes to continue collecting data from HD1 using James Webb Space Telescope. With this powerful tool in orbit, considered a “time machine”, Your distance from Earth will be re-verified. If confirmed by calculations, it will officially be the oldest and most distant galaxy ever recorded. For now, that’s just one of the possible theories. Over time we will know if this is true.

More information | Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

in Xataka | Controversial Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb is convinced Project Galileo is our best chance of finding extraterrestrial technology.