Scientists are still speculating how the universe has been formed. There are a number of theories that try to explain this, but none of them have yet been fully verified yet. A newly discovered galaxy might shed light, as a hyper-starburst galaxy might provide clues to the universe's evolution.
The galaxy is known as SPT 0346-52. It is 127 billion light years from the Earth. At such distance it is said to be near as to when the universe was formed, as farther the object is from the Earth, the farther back in time it is. University of Florida graduate student Jingzhe Ma and his team are observing it using Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Using data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, the team noted a bright infrared emission coming from the galaxy. A theory has been proposed about the emission. According to the theory, a supermassive black hole is at the center of the galaxy and that is causing infrared to come out from it.
Gas, dust and other matter fall into a black hole. As these fall into it, they emit bursts of radioactive emission just before they completely fall into it. The team is looking into this using Chandra as well as CSIRO's Australia Telescope Radio Array, according to UF News.
However, after careful observation, there are no x-ray or radio wave emissions coming from the center. A black hole then could not possibly be creating the bright emission, as the team has discovered. Ma said that it could possibly be the bright emission from stars being formed.
Star formation on SPT 0346-52 is going at a fast rate. This rate is 4,500 times the mass of the Sun and is going on every year, as Science Daily reports. Normal galaxies such as the Milky Way only form stars at a rate of one solar mass per year.
It is speculated that SPT 0346-52 has a high volume of cool gas that is speeding up star formation there. The team would be continuing its study to find out if the galaxy would soon have a supermassive black hole in it. The study would also see how a hyper-starburst galaxy might provide clues to the universe's evolution. Planet forming dust has also been recently measured by ALMA, as reported earlier.
