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Dead Orbit: Researchers Found a Galaxy that Isn't Spinning — that's Not Normal
Researchers are analyzing three similar-age galaxies and will compare observations with simulations to test whether a head-on collision stopped the rotation.
- UC Davis researchers discovered a relatively young, non-spinning galaxy named XMM-VID1-2075 using the James Webb Space Telescope, marking an unusual astronomical observation.
- Scientists believe the rotation stopped after two galaxies spinning in opposite directions collided, a theory researchers are testing by analyzing XMM-VID1-2075 alongside two other galaxies of similar age.
- Benjamin Forrest, an assistant researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UC Davis, said the James Webb data has been "highly competitive," noting discoveries have "turned out even better than we had imagined."
- Findings were published in Nature Astronomy this week, and researchers now plan to compare initial observations with computer simulations to test theories about how galaxies form.
- Forrest emphasized the importance of finding similar objects, stating, "Once you have one object that's interesting, you want to understand why" and how common such anomalies are.
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A dead galaxy from the early universe is forcing astronomers to rethink galactic evolution
Space tends to reward expectations. Young galaxies should spin. Gas falls in, gravity takes hold, angular momentum builds, and the whole system settles into motion. That is why one faraway object spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope stands out so sharply: despite its huge mass, it barely seems to rotate at all. The galaxy, called XMM-VID1-2075, appears at a time when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old. Yet its behavior looks more l…
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