Astronomers Spot Two Massive Galaxies Surrounded by a Halo of Dark Matter at the Dawn of Time

www.popularmechanics.com ^ | 12/06/2017 | By John Wenz

[Red Badger]

Less than a billion years after the Big Bang, two titans speed toward each other.

NRAO/AUI/NSF; D. Berry

=======================================================================

Just 780 million years after the universe formed in the Big Bang, two galaxies speed to confront each other in a head-on collision that will lead to a merger between the two—and one of them is towing along a clump of dark matter larger than any spotted before.

The research paper, published today in Nature, highlights a little-understood era of the universe known as the Epoch of Reionization. This is when the first galaxies came together and lit up the universe by converting hydrogen from a neutral atom to an ionized state, making the universe more transparent.

Most galaxies of the era were believed to be small, low-mass dwarf galaxies. But the results of this study—and an unrelated paper also published in Nature today that highlights a supermassive black hole from this period, the oldest ever discovered—paint a different picture of the early universe. One of the galaxies in the pair known as SPT0311-58 is only slightly less massive than the Milky Way, though the other is much smaller.

The Milky Way's mass is equal to some 480 billion suns, while SPT0311-58 has about 440 billion solar masses. The smaller galaxy in the ancient pair is about 35 billion solar masses. A halo of dark matter surrounding the two is about 100 billion solar masses.

The galaxies, created via a composite image of several telescopes. ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Marrone, et al.; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); NASA/ESA Hubble ==========================================================================================

Though the dark matter halo can’t be seen, its presence is inferred through gravitational interactions with the galaxies, which suggest it is enveloping both as they merge. The galaxies are messy in appearance as they haven’t had time to settle into a spiral (or other) shape due to their relative youth.

According to a NRAO press release, there are more galaxies waiting to be discovered in the same field. The pair was discovered by the South Pole Telescope, which is specifically attuned to the early universe, and follow-up observations were made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

“Our hope is to find more objects like this, possibly even more distant ones, to better understand this population of extreme dusty galaxies and especially their relation to the bulk population of galaxies at this epoch,” said Joaquin Vieira of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in a press release.

How the first galaxies formed in the ether of the early universe is one of the biggest questions in astronomy. Studying galaxies like SPT0311-58 could help scientists understand the strange dynamics of this ancient time in the cosmos.

[Red Badger]

No it didn’t...............

[Windflier]

Electric Universe ping.

[Red Badger]

Yes.

His name is Gabriel...................

[exit82]

I love the part of the long scientific equations that has brackets with the words “Then a miracle happens” in between.

[Rebelbase]

“They ARE being sucked into a black hole! In the center of the galaxy”

A galactic tax to stop that would give it’s inhabitants peace of mind.

[Enchante]

[Red Badger]

That would just create another Black hole......................

[Conan the Librarian]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_Cluster

[Windflier]

No it didn’t...

Gravity actually is explained in the video I linked, but unfortunately it's only briefly shown on a slide during the presentation.

If you're up for it, here is a video presentation that goes into great depth, though it's considerably longer (but fascinating):

Wal Thornhill - The Long Path To Understanding Gravity

[Windflier]

I love the part of the long scientific equations that has brackets with the words “Then a miracle happens” in between.

That is one of my all time favorite cartoons. It really portrays the state of modern cosmology in one snapshot.

[exit82]

Exact cartoon I was thinking of——thanks.

[Swordmaker]

Orthodox cosmologists again claiming to see what they don’t and can’t see at the edge of the observable Universe to try and explain what they can’t explain without invoking magical unseen fudge factors to make their theories work! —Electric Universe PING!

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Swordmaker]

Thanks for the heads up, Windflyer. Pinged.

[Seruzawa]

The fevered dreams of materialists.

[TigersEye]

I’m glad you asked that it confuses me too.

I would have asked it more simply;

How can the mass that composes our galaxy, which began traveling from the same point as all other mass in the universe, and which does not travel anywhere close to the speed of light, be ahead of the light that originated in those galaxies approximately 13 billion years ago?

[Pikachu_Dad]

There is a massive black hole at the center of every galaxy!

[Lurker]

“The room you’re sitting in could be filled with them but there is no way to detect them.“

Then they don’t exist.

L

[RegulatorCountry]

[Telepathic Intruder]

"Then they don’t exist."

To you no, but they can (theoretically) have gravitational effects on whole galaxy clusters. A far greater effect than things you do consider to exist. Dark matter is estimated to outweigh normal matter by about 5 or 6 to 1. But they don't clump like normal matter, so it takes an astronomically huge volume of them to weigh any significant amount (still assuming we're talking about ghost particles).

Space is mostly empty space, our planet being a tiny, dense clump of matter surrounded by millions of miles of almost nothing. If those millions of miles contain just a tiny bit of dark matter per cubic centimeter, however, it adds up. Next apply that to the trillions of miles across interstellar space. It all adds up to more dark matter than normal matter, theoretically. Observationally, we know something out there, with mass, must exist in order to have the gravitational pull that we see.

[Lurker]

“Dark matter is estimated to outweigh normal matter by about 5 or 6 to 1.“

Then I should run over tons of it with my lawnmower. But, I don’t.

“But they don’t clump like normal matter,”

So it exerts gravitational force on “ordinary”matter but isn’t affected by its own gravitational force. Do I have that right?

“Observationally, we know something out there, with mass, must exist in order to have the gravitational pull that we see.”

Or your premise is wrong.

L