Acercándonos a un anillo sorprendente
Esta imagen de la semana muestra la galaxia distante PJ0116-24, una galaxia infrarroja hiperluminosa (HyLIRG, por sus siglas en inglés). Las HyLIRG son galaxias increíblemente brillantes, iluminadas por la formación estelar extremadamente rápida que tiene lugar en su interior. Pero, ¿qué desencadena todo esto?
Estudios anteriores sugirieron que estas galaxias extremas deben ser el resultado de fusiones de galaxias. Se cree que estas colisiones de galaxias crean densas regiones de gas en las que se desencadena una rápida formación de estrellas. Pero las galaxias aisladas también podrían convertirse en HyLIRGs únicamente a través de procesos internos si el gas necesario para la formación estelar se canalizara rápidamente hacia el centro de la galaxia.
En un nuevo artículo dirigido por Daizhong Liu (Instituto Max-Planck de Física Extraterrestre), se combinaron observaciones del Very Large Telescope (VLT) de ESO y del Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) para estudiar el movimiento del gas que hay en el interior de PJ0116-24. ALMA traza el gas frío, que se ve aquí en azul, mientras que el VLT, con su nuevo instrumento ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph, espectrógrafo y generador de imágenes de resolución mejorada), traza el gas caliente, que se muestra en rojo. Gracias a estas observaciones detalladas, el equipo descubrió que el gas de esta galaxia extrema estaba girando de forma organizada, en lugar de hacerlo de la forma caótica que se espera después de una colisión galáctica, ¡un resultado sorprendente! Esto demuestra de manera convincente que las fusiones no siempre son necesarias para que una galaxia se convierta en una HyLIRG.
PJ0116-24 está tan lejos que su luz tardó unos 10.000 millones de años en llegar hasta nosotros. Afortunadamente, una galaxia en primer plano (que no se muestra aquí) actuó como una lente gravitacional, doblando y magnificando la luz de PJ0116-24 detrás de ella en el anillo de Einstein que vemos aquí. Esta alineación cósmica precisa permite a la comunidad astronómica acercarse a objetos muy distantes y verlos con un nivel de detalle que, de otro modo, sería muy difícil de lograr.
Enlaces
- Comparación, una junto a la otra, de las imágenes obtenidas por el VLT y ALMA
- Trabajo de investigación liderado por el grupo de infrarrojos MPE, la colaboración PASSAGES y el consorcio ERIS
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ESO/D. Liu et al.
Sobre la imagen
| Identificador: | potw2429a |
| Idioma: | es |
| Tipo: | Observación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 15 de Julio de 2024 a las 11:00 |
| Tamaño: | 1768 x 1768 px |
Sobre el objeto
| Nombre: | PJ0116-24 |
| Tipo: | Early Universe : Galaxy : Activity : Ultraluminous |
| Distancia: | 10 mil millones años luz |
| Constellation: | Cetus |
Fondo de pantalla
Coordenadas
| Position (RA): | 1 16 46.80 |
| Position (Dec): | -24° 37' 2.00" |
| Field of view: | 0.15 x 0.15 arcminutes |
| Orientación: | El norte está a 0.0° a la izquierda de la vertical |
Colores y filtros
| Banda | Longitud de onda | Telescopio |
|---|---|---|
| Milímetro CO(3-2) | 2.7 mm | Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 3 |
| Infrarrojo H-alpha | 2.0 μm | Very Large Telescope ERIS |
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