91ÑÇÉ«

The force is not-so strong with this one, new research finds

An international group of astronomers, including from 91ÑÇɫ’s department of Physics and Astronomy, using the world’s most powerful space telescope, have made a surprising discovery about a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away: It isn’t rotating.

That’s something typically seen in more mature galaxies that are closer to us in space and time, says Ben Forrest, a research scientist at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis, and first author on the paper published May 4 in Nature Astronomy.

Canadian astronomers use Webb to uncover Milky Way’s turbulent youth through galactic twins

How galaxies assemble their stars and grow over billions of years remains one of the central questions in astronomy. Recent results from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), including reports of surprisingly massive and evolved galaxies in the early Universe, have only deepened the mystery. Understanding how our own home galaxy, the Milky Way, built itself over time provides a crucial piece of this broader cosmic puzzle.