Oldest galaxy ever!!!

**visser300** · July 22, 2012, 01:40 AM

http://www.gizmag.com/earliest-spira...bserved/23397/

Our universe is so amazing

**fkizz** · July 23, 2012, 09:12 AM

Interesting link, thanks

**Phier** · July 23, 2012, 10:18 AM

Oldest spiral galaxy ever.

I read this last week and they were wondering if the dwarf galaxy near it somehow sped up the formation of the spiral.

**Sphere** · July 23, 2012, 11:22 AM

The article doesn't really get at it, but the formation of spiral arms in galaxies is a phenomena which is not well understood.

At first it was thought that the center of these galaxies were simply rotating faster that the outside, causing the spiral. However, when the velocity measurements of stars were actually taken, they showed that these galaxies did not have a fast rotating center, rather everything was rotating together (like a solid frisbee would) and thus could have caused the spiraling.

The theories of what causes spiral arm formations are now more nuanced, but none are fully fleshed out and verified. This discovery throws another wrench into things.

**Visna** · July 23, 2012, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Sphere

The article doesn't really get at it, but the formation of spiral arms in galaxies is a phenomena which is not well understood.

At first it was thought that the center of these galaxies were simply rotating faster that the outside, causing the spiral. However, when the velocity measurements of stars were actually taken, they showed that these galaxies did not have a fast rotating center, rather everything was rotating together (like a solid frisbee would) and thus could have caused the spiraling.

The theories of what causes spiral arm formations are now more nuanced, but none are fully fleshed out and verified. This discovery throws another wrench into things.

I thought that NASA (or was it a University, don't quite remember?) supercomputer which chewed on numbers for something like 9 months and came up with a spiral galaxy more or less settled it? I think it's called the Eris galaxy.

**Phier** · July 23, 2012, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by Visna

I thought that NASA (or was it a University, don't quite remember?) supercomputer which chewed on numbers for something like 9 months and came up with a spiral galaxy more or less settled it? I think it's called the Eris galaxy.

Well the problem is that this one shouldn't exist which would call into question that simulation. Also it was still a limited simulation so it can't be called definitive.

**Sphere** · July 23, 2012, 03:47 PM

I thought that NASA (or was it a University, don't quite remember?) supercomputer which chewed on numbers for something like 9 months and came up with a spiral galaxy more or less settled it? I think it's called the Eris galaxy.

That's very possible, my info could be old. Perhaps you could hunt down a link?