An international group of researchers used telescopes and giant to identify the secrets and the nature of an object very distinct in the universe, called bubble Lyman-alpha (LAB).
These bubbles are huge clouds of hydrogen and to find out more about their composition were necessary for the various telescopes and giant, among them the Soul (an acronym for Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array) and ESO’s Very Large Telescope, or VLT.
Until then, the astronomers still do not know why these large gas clouds were so bright, but the telescopes have identified two galaxies in the heart of one of these objects that are undergoing a star formation that causes the lighting in the surrounding.
These galaxies, on the other hand, are at the center of a “cluster” of smaller ones, in what appears to be the initial phase of training a large group of galaxies.
according To the researchers, the two galaxies observed within the bubble Lyman-alpha should evolve into a huge elliptical galaxy.
The bubbles Lyman-Alpha can cover hundreds of thousands of light years and are found in long cosmic distances. The name reflects the characteristic of the waves in the ultraviolet that they emit, known as the radiation at Lyman-alpha.
Since the discovery of these bubbles, the processes that lead to the creation of these structures have been a puzzle to astronomers. But new observations from the Alma can now have solved the mystery.
The bubble
One of the biggest bubble Lyman-alpha-known – and most studied – is the SSA22, or LAB-1. Located within the center of a group of galaxies in the initial phase of training, was the first object of this type to be discovered, in 2000, and is so distant that its light took 11.5 billion years to reach Earth.
A group of astronomers, led by Jim Geach, from the Research Center Astrofísicas the University of Hertfordshire, in England, used now the technology of the Soul to observe the light of the clouds of dust frozen in distant galaxies to look even more deeply into the LAB-1.
This allowed the identification of several sources of emission of waves and sub-millimetre.
They then combined the images from the Soul with observations of other large telescopes such as the VLT and the MUSE (an acronym for Explorer the Spectroscopic MultiUnidade) that can map the light of Lyman-Alpha. This revealed that the emission sources “fished” by the Soul are located in the center of the bubble, where they are being formed stars at a speed 100 times greater than that of the Milky way.
additional Images still show that the sources of the Soul are surrounded by fainter galaxies that may be bombarding the sources of the core material, and assisting in the speed of the training click.
Lights in the fog
The team then used a simulation galactic sophisticated to demonstrate that the bright cloud giant, issued by the Lyman-Alpha can be explained if the ultraviolet light produced by the star formation and observed by the sources of the Soul spreads the hydrogen gas of the surroundings. This would lead to the formation of the bubble Lyman-Alpha that we can see.
The researcher is central to the study, Jim Geach, makes an analogy to help explain the discovery.
“Think of the lights of the streets in a night of fog – you see that sparkle diffuse because the light spreads in small droplets. A similar movement happens here, except for the fact that the light of the streets is a galaxy of intense star formation, and the fog is a cloud giant gas intergalactic. The galaxies are lighting up their surroundings,” he explains.
to Understand the formation of galaxies and their evolution, is an enormous challenge for the astronomers and the bubbles Lyman-Alpha are important because they seem to be the places where most of the galaxies in massive form. In particular, the brightness of these bubbles can give you information about what is happening in the gas clouds in primordial encircling the galaxies are young – a region that is very difficult to study, but critical to understanding the formation of galaxies.
“what is most exciting about these bubbles is that we are having a rare vision of what is happening on the outskirts of these galaxies in young people and in training. For a long time, the origin of the lights of the Lyman-alpha has been controversial. But, with the combination of new observations and simulations of the tip, we may have solved a mystery from 15 years ago: the LAB-1 is a local formation of a large elliptical galaxy that will one day be the centre of a group of galaxies. We are seeing a picture of the formation of this galaxy there are 11.5 billion years old,” said the researcher.
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