A group of astronomers has found the presence of dust in galaxy from the early universe.
The new discovery has also debunked the previous theories that suggested earliest galaxies constituted no dust but only gas.
The discovery shows ancient galaxies were very quickly filled with dust particles that contained the elements like oxygen and carbon which could form the planets.
Astrophysicist Darach Watson, from the Niels Bohr Institute at Denmark’s University of Copenhagen, “This is the first time when dust has been found in one of the ever observed most distant galaxies – only 700 million years after the Big Bang. It is a galaxy of modest size and full of dust.”
According to Watson, this is very surprising and it informs us about the ordinary galaxies that are enriched with heavier elements far faster than expectations.
Early galaxies’ young stars emitted hot ultraviolet radiations that heat the ice-cold dust, which further emitted light in the far-infrared.
The presence of this far-infrared light tells us about the existence of dust in the galaxy, according to the authors.
This is the first time when presence of dust has been uncovered in such an early galaxy.
Dust plays an extremely crucial role in the universe as it supports both formation of new stars and planets.
The astronomers are hoping further observations of a big number of distant galaxies could help them in unfolding evolution of galaxies in this very early epoch of the history of universe.
The findings of the study were published in the scientific journal Nature.
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