Galaxy started forming stars only 200 million years after the Big Bang?

_{Denyse O'Leary

April 16, 2011

Cosmology}

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From the “earlier than thought” files, galaxies
From ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2011):

Using the amplifying power of a cosmic gravitational lens, astronomers have discovered a distant galaxy whose stars were born unexpectedly early in cosmic history. This result sheds new light on the formation of the first galaxies, as well as on the early evolution of the Universe.Johan Richard, the lead author of a new study says: “We have discovered a distant galaxy that began forming stars just 200 million years after the Big Bang. This challenges theories of how soon galaxies formed and evolved in the first years of the Universe. It could even help solve the mystery of how the hydrogen fog that filled the early Universe was cleared.”

[ … ]

“It seems probable that there are in fact far more galaxies out there in the early Universe than we previously estimated — it’s just that many galaxies are older and fainter, like the one we have just discovered,” says co-author Jean-Paul Kneib. “If this unseen army of faint, elderly galaxies is indeed out there, they could provide the missing radiation that made the Universe transparent to ultraviolet light.”

(Note: Journal Reference:
Richard et al. Discovery of a possibly old galaxy at z=6.027, multiply imaged by the massive cluster Abell 383. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011; (forthcoming) )

Comments

There is also a view that the days are not literal 24 hour days, nor are they intended to each represent long periods of time, but rather that the creation week and it's days provide a literary framework. Personally I find this more reasonable than to think that the author of the account in Genesis was really concerned about "how long" it took God to do what He did. When we ask how long did it take, and the author wasn't even addressing that question, we really miss out on the real message that the text was intended to convey.Mung_{April 17, 2011
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tjguy, I NEVER have held to a literal 24 hour reading of Genesis and have always thought the passages in Genesis referred to long eras of time, even when I was a young child I believed this since this is what my Grandfather taught me. As far as you accusing me of excluding some scriptures and including others, that is simply not true, for as Dr. Ross makes clear, when ALL scriptures are read literally AND consistently, the clear meaning that comes out of the text is that the days are long periods of time. Creation Days - Hugh Ross - short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kj-jHsNkwQ A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy [Paperback] - Hugh Ross http://www.amazon.com/Matter-Days-Resolving-Creation-Controversy/dp/1576833755bornagain77_{April 17, 2011
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I'm not a fan of the Big Bang. Seems there are too many tweaks that have to be made and problems that have to be ignored in order to make it work. There are MANY different versions of the Big Bang out there which shows that none of them really work. This type of discovery of early galaxies is a bit challenging for Big Bang enthusiasts because it is a surprise and is not predicted by the Big Bang. Plus, using Job 38 as support for this is very interesting to me, especially in light of the fact that Job is much more poetic than Genesis is. It is a bit of a questionable interpretation. It is difficult to understand why you have no problem with this passage but so easily reject and re-interpret the plain meaning of the much less poetic Genesis account of creation. What principles of interepretation(hermeneutics) are you using?tjguy_{April 17, 2011
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200 million years is what I already had in my notes: notes; As well as the universe having a transcendent beginning, thus confirming the Theistic postulation in Genesis 1:1, the following recent discovery of a 'Dark Age' for the early universe uncannily matches up with the Bible passage in Job 38:4-11. For the first 400,000 years of our universe’s expansion, the universe was a seething maelstrom of energy and sub-atomic particles. This maelstrom was so hot, that sub-atomic particles trying to form into atoms would have been blasted apart instantly, and so dense, light could not travel more than a short distance before being absorbed. If you could somehow live long enough to look around in such conditions, you would see nothing but brilliant white light in all directions. When the cosmos was about 400,000 years old, it had cooled to about the temperature of the surface of the sun. The last light from the "Big Bang" shone forth at that time. This "light" is still detectable today as the Cosmic Background Radiation. This 400,000 year old “baby” universe entered into a period of darkness. When the dark age of the universe began, the cosmos was a formless sea of particles. By the time the dark age ended, a couple of hundred million years later, the universe lit up again by the light of some of the galaxies and stars that had been formed during this dark era. It was during the dark age of the universe that the heavier chemical elements necessary for life, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and most of the rest, were first forged, by nuclear fusion inside the stars, out of the universe’s primordial hydrogen and helium. It was also during this dark period of the universe the great structures of the modern universe were first forged. Super-clusters, of thousands of galaxies stretching across millions of light years, had their foundations laid in the dark age of the universe. During this time the infamous “missing dark matter”, was exerting more gravity in some areas than in other areas; drawing in hydrogen and helium gas, causing the formation of mega-stars. These mega-stars were massive, weighing in at 20 to more than 100 times the mass of the sun. The crushing pressure at their cores made them burn through their fuel in only a million years. It was here, in these short lived mega-stars under these crushing pressures, the chemical elements necessary for life were first forged out of the hydrogen and helium. The reason astronomers can’t see the light from these first mega-stars, during this dark era of the universe’s early history, is because the mega-stars were shrouded in thick clouds of hydrogen and helium gas. These thick clouds prevented the mega-stars from spreading their light through the cosmos as they forged the elements necessary for future life to exist on earth. After about 200 million years, the end of the dark age came to the cosmos. The universe was finally expansive enough to allow the dispersion of the thick hydrogen and helium “clouds”. With the continued expansion of the universe, the light, of normal stars and dwarf galaxies, was finally able to shine through the thick clouds of hydrogen and helium gas, bringing the dark age to a close. (How The Stars Were Born - Michael D. Lemonick) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376229-2,00.html Job 38:4-11 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed my limit for it, and set bars and doors; When I said, ‘This far you may come but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!" History of The Universe Timeline- Graph Image http://www.astronomynotes.com/cosmolgy/CMB_Timeline.jpg As a sidelight to this, every class of elements that exists on the periodic table of elements is necessary for complex carbon-based life to exist on earth. The three most abundant elements in the human body, Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, 'just so happen' to be the most abundant elements in the universe, save for helium which is inert. A truly amazing coincidence that strongly implies 'the universe had us in mind all along'. Even uranium the last naturally occurring element on the period table of elements is necessary for life. The heat generated by the decay of uranium is necessary to keep a molten core in the earth for an extended period of time, which is necessary for the magnetic field surrounding the earth, which in turn protects organic life from the harmful charged particles of the sun. As well, uranium decay provides the heat for tectonic activity and the turnover of the earth's crustal rocks, which is necessary to keep a proper mixture of minerals and nutrients available on the surface of the earth, which is necessary for long term life on earth. (Denton; Nature's Destiny). These following articles and videos give a bit deeper insight into the crucial role that individual elements play in allowing life: The Elements: Forged in Stars - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4003861 Michael Denton - We Are Stardust - Uncanny Balance Of The Elements - Fred Hoyle Atheist to Deist/Theist - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4003877 The Role of Elements in Life Processes http://www.mii.org/periodic/LifeElement.php Periodic Table - Interactive web page for each element http://www.mii.org/periodic/MiiPeriodicChart.htmbornagain77_{April 17, 2011
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Yes, vjtorley, you're right. Something got lost in the translation there ... now fixed.News_{April 17, 2011
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I believe the heading of this post needs to be amended to read: Galaxy started forming stars only 200 million years after the Big Bang?vjtorley_{April 16, 2011
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