’Only 2% chance of discovery’: NASA’s James Webb Telescope finds one of the biggest gargantuan galaxy
Produced by Tarun Mishra
Produced by Tarun Mishra
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have identified an unusually large disk galaxy in the early universe. Dubbed the Big Wheel, its light has travelled over 12 billion years to reach Earth.
The Big Wheel is a disk galaxy, similar to the Milky Way, with a flat, rotating structure of stars, gas, and dust. It existed within the first two billion years after the Big Bang, challenging established models of galaxy formation.
Unlike previously studied early galaxies, the Big Wheel is three times larger than others from the same period. It has also maintained a spiral structure, despite theories suggesting rapid mergers should disrupt such formations.
Observations show the Big Wheel rotates at speeds placing it within the upper range of the Tully-Fisher relation, which links a galaxy’s stellar mass to its rotation. Its mass and speed resemble modern super-spiral galaxies.
The Big Wheel is located in an area ten times denser than typical space regions. The high galaxy concentration likely contributed to its rapid growth while preserving its spiral structure through mild mergers and well-aligned gas inflows.
Finding a galaxy like the Big Wheel was statistically unlikely. Based on current galaxy formation models, there was less than a 2% chance of detecting such a massive and structured galaxy in this timeframe.
The discovery raises questions about how early massive galaxies formed and evolved. Future mergers could significantly alter the Big Wheel, making it comparable to some of today’s largest cluster galaxies, such as those in the Virgo Cluster.