The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has enabled a team of scientists led by Dr. Takafumi Tsukui to observe seismic-like ripples in the ancient galactic disk of BRI 1335-0417, the oldest known spiral galaxy at over 12 billion years old. This unprecedented observation reveals the galaxy’s dynamic growth patterns, showcasing a vertically oscillating disk movement similar to ripples on a pond. This study marks the first time such phenomena have been detected in an early galaxy. Read more here.
Read here the scientific paper Detecting a disc bending wave in a barred-spiral galaxy at redshift 4.4 (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 527, Issue 3, January 2024, Pages 8941–8949, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3588).
Image: © Bland-Hawthorn and Tepper-Garcia, University of Sydney; Simulation by Bland-Hawthorn and Tepper-Garcia illustrates a galaxy disk being disturbed, leading to the propagation of a seismic ripple throughout the disk