Mysterious ‘UFO Galaxies’ Discovered in Space
Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery in the field of galaxy research, uncovering a collection of 56 mysterious “UFO galaxies” that appear as red, glowing disc-shaped objects in the blackness of space. The discovery was made possible by the advanced technology of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is capable of detecting infrared light.
The UFO galaxies are estimated to be similar in size and shape to the Milky Way, but are “much dustier” and emit very little visible light. Most of the light escaping from these galaxies is infrared radiation, which is at the limit of what human eyes can perceive.
The researchers used a suite of computer simulations, neural network emulators, and mathematical models to determine the shapes of these large, red UFO galaxies. They found that they come in forms such as classic “flying saucers” (discs) and rugby ball-shaped “prolate spheroids.”
Each of these massive, red light- and infrared radiation-emitting galaxies contains roughly 50 times more dust than our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The researchers are puzzled by this phenomenon, asking “Why on Earth do these galaxies have so much more dust than all the other galaxies?”
The study’s lead author, Justus Gibson, noted that JWST allows us to see this type of galaxy that we never would have been able to see before. “It tells us that maybe we didn’t understand the universe as well as we thought,” he said.
The discovery of the UFO galaxies challenges current ideas of how galaxies form and suggests that gravity may not pool all the matter that swirls a young galaxy together into neatly defined planets and stars, leaving a lot of dust and debris behind.
The findings have been published in The Astrophysical Journal and are expected to shed new light on the mysteries of galaxy formation and evolution.
