The Earliest Galaxies Spin Just Like Our Milky Way, Defying Expectations
“As our data sets improve, we should begin to measure the internal motions of large numbers of galaxies like this, which will answer many questions and raise others. Do most/all galaxies at these early stages rotate in a whirlpool-like plane? Is there a variety and multiple sets of populations that exhibit different behaviors? What are the actual effects of gas infall, supernovae, and small-scale motions? What is the velocity profile of these rotation curves, and can they teach us anything about the interplay of radiation, normal matter, and dark matter?
While we hope to learn these answers, we can now ask these questions sensibly in the aftermath of having measured the movement and internal motions of a galaxy so far away. At least for the first two, they rotate very similarly to their much older cousins, a quite unexpected result. Thanks to ALMA, we’re taking those coveted next steps into the final frontier.”
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When you form galaxies in the very young Universe, it’s supposed to be a chaotic, turbulent place. Sure, you have gravitation, pulling matter in and creating a pancake-like shape. But then you form stars, and everything goes haywire. Supernovae go off, gas falls in, protogalaxies merge and get swallowed, motions get stirred up, and turbulence should permeate the galaxy. It ought to take billions of years for them to quiet down into a Milky Way-like whirlpool. Well, for the first time, owing to ALMA and Renske Smit’s team, the internal motions of galaxies less than a billion years old were measured, and – surprise! – their movement is smooth and not chaotic at all.