Capturing the Onset of Galaxy Rotation in the Early Universe

An international research team led by Tsuyoshi Tokuoka, a graduate student at Waseda University in Japan, has observed signs of rotation in a galaxy, which existed in the early universe, only 500 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy is by far the earliest galaxy with a signature of galaxy rotation. Its rotational speed is only 50 kilometers per second, compared to 220 kilometers per second for the Milky Way, indicating that the galaxy is still at an initial stage of developing a rotational motion. This finding would lead to a better understanding of the galaxy formation in the early universe.

What is ALMA Astronomy News?

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) -the largest astronomical project in existence- is a single telescope of revolutionary design, composed of 66 high precision antennas located in northern Chile. ALMA is an international partnership of ESO (Europe), NSF (U.S) and NINS (Japan) together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile We love the Cosmos!