Mystery solved: astronomers have discovered what are these spots spatial – SAPO Tek

it Was 15 years ago that a group of astronomers has found the first spot space Lyman-alpha in the universe. In a first analysis, the aspect of this training showed signs of being a galaxy. It was great as a, bright as a, but, on the other hand, there were no signs of stars present, dispelling the hypothesis for a plan in the secondary.

Since then, the discovery of these bright spots and colored became common in outer space – up until today have been already found more than 30. It was concluded that they were giant bubbles of hydrogen that are generally millions of light-years away and emit waves in the ultraviolet, but, without ever solving the mystery of what makes them shine so distinct, the puzzles continued to be the target of the investigation.

This Wednesday, a statement from the European Southern Observatory reports that the case has been resolved. Thanks to the articulation between the various images already captured by the telescopes, and the simulation software space, dozens of astronomers consensualizaram around a theory that can explain what goes on in these “stains of color” that dot the cosmos.

contrary To what was previously thought, even in the center of one of these objects is to form a group of giant galaxies where the activity of star formation is happening at a frenetic pace, 100 times faster than in the Milky way, illuminating everything around.

“Think of the lights of the streets on a foggy night – we see that brightness diffuse because the light is scattered in between the little drops of water. What happens here is similar, except that the lights of the streets, in this case, is a galaxy of intense star formation, and the fog is a gigantic cloud of gas intergalactic. The galaxies are light the that involves,” said Jim Geach, the main responsible for the study.

“what is exciting in these spots is that we are giving a rare view of what is happening around these young galaxies in formation. For a long time the source of the lights Lyman-alpha has been a controversial topic. But with the combination of new observations and simulations, we find that we can solve this mystery with the 15-year history: the Lyman-alpha Blob-1 is the space of formation of a giant elliptical galaxy that will one day be the heart of a group of other galaxies. What we are seeing is an image of the formation in that galaxy there are 11.5 billion years ago,” said Jim Geach.