CEERS-2112 is the most distant barred spiral galaxy observed as of 2023.[1] The light observed from the galaxy was emitted when the universe was only 2.1 billion years old. It was determined to be similar in mass to the Milky Way.
| CEERS-2112 | |
|---|---|
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Ursa Major/Boötes |
| Right ascension | 14h 19m 55.18s |
| Declination | 52° 59′ 31.1″ |
| Redshift | 3.03 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 986,317 km/h (612,869 mph) |
| Galactocentric velocity | 986,440 km/h (612,950 mph) |
| Distance | 11.7 billion ly (3.6 billion pc) (light travel distance) ~20 billion ly (6.1 billion pc) (comoving distance) |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SBbc |
| Mass | 3.9×109 M☉ |
| Size | 30 kly (9.2 kpc) |
| Apparent size (V) | 0.009 x 0.005 moa |
| Other designations | |
| CANDELS J141955.18+525931.0, SYM2017 30172 | |
Observations
editThe galaxy is located in the Extended Groth Strip cosmological field and it was identified as a barred spiral galaxy thanks to the observations of the NIRCam instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope. These observations were made in June 2022 as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey and are publicly available for the general community.
Morphology
editCEERS-2112 is a barred spiral galaxy, resembling the structure of the Milky Way. It presents a concentration of stars moving on very elliptical orbits in its central region, which appears as an elongated structure (stellar bar), from which two faint spiral arms develop. In the local Universe,[2] about 70% of galaxies show this appearance, which is quite rare in the early Universe,[3] where the percentage diminishes to about 5% at redshift z > 2.
Stellar mass
editThe galaxy has a stellar mass of 3.9 billion times that of the Sun, comparable with that of the Milky Way 11.7 billion years ago.[4][5]
References
edit- ^ Costantin, L.; et al. (2023). "A Milky Way-like barred spiral galaxy at a redshift of 3". Nature. 623 (7987): 499–501. arXiv:2311.04283. Bibcode:2023Natur.623..499C. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06636-x. S2CID 265048621.
- ^ Marinova, I.; Jogee, S. (2007). "Characterizing Bars at z~0 in the Optical and NIR: Implications for the Evolution of Barred Disks with Redshift". The Astrophysical Journal. 659 (2): 1176–1197. arXiv:astro-ph/0608039. Bibcode:2007ApJ...659.1176M. doi:10.1086/512355. S2CID 16789909.
- ^ Le Conte; et al. (2023). "A JWST investigation into the bar fraction at redshifts 1 < z < 3". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. arXiv:2309.10038.
- ^ Papovich, C.; et al. (2015). "ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z = 3 to 0.5". The Astrophysical Journal. 803 (1): 26–49. arXiv:1412.3806. Bibcode:2015ApJ...803...26P. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/803/1/26. S2CID 3960409.
- ^ Sotillo-Ramos, D.; et al. (2022). "The merger and assembly histories of Milky Way- and M31-like galaxies with TNG50: disc survival through mergers". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 516 (4): 5404–5427. arXiv:2211.00036. doi:10.1093/mnras/stac2586.
External links
edit- CEERS public webpage: https://ceers.github.io
- The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (CEERS datasets): https://archive.stsci.edu/hlsp/ceers