The galaxy, GN20, is over 12 billion light-years away, making it one of the oldest galaxies ever seen with such detail and active star formation.
for the galaxy at a robust 1,860 solar masses per year, compared with just six to seven new solar masses a year for the Milky Way. The 45,600-light-year-wide galaxy also has an observable motion consistent with a fast, rotating disk.L. Colina, et al, Spanish Astrobiology CenterWhile the new findings are fascinating in themselves, the observations are also important to understanding how massive quiescent galaxies at intermediate redshift might have formed.
It is thought that these galaxies are older than more active spiral galaxies with active star formation and are the product of galaxy mergers and interaction of DSFGs in the early universe that strip away molecular gases needed for star formation while slowing their rotations to produce more "blob-like" shapes.
The observations of GN20 give evidence of this in its discernible galactic nucleus and the stellar envelope around it. The galaxy's center of mass, which under normal circumstances would be roughly within the nucleus, is offset from the nucleus by about 3,300 light-years. Given the location of GN20 in a galaxy-dense proto-cluster, this shift of its centroid to such an extent is likely the product of a recent galaxy merger or interaction that has shifted its mass off-center.
Accordingly, the researchers conclude that GN20 has all of the prerequisites needed to evolve into a massive quiescent galaxy. Given its extreme age, it probably already has.
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