As more and more scientist peer over the incredible data from the James Webb Telescope,
more and more mysteries keep appearing. Today we are going to look at 6 galaxies
that should not exist and then look at some of the detailed images of
galaxies that show a fractal pattern of filaments running through them.
In a new report published in Nature scientists have discovered 6 galaxies which they claim
dates to about 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang. According to current cosmology based on
the Big Bang theory the first stars formed around 200-400 million years after the big
bang. These would then cluster together with dust and gas to form small galaxies which would merge
to create large and large ones. This process should take a considerable amount of time.
So these early galaxies should be small, non-spiral and contain a small number of stars.
What they actually discovered stunned them. These six galaxies were so massive that they
simply should not exist. There simply would not be enough time to create them.
One was estimated to be 100 billion solar masses. Significantly larger
than our own Milky Way which is only 60 billion solar masses.
How these galaxies formed so large so close to the start of the Big Bang is a Mystery according
to the scientist. They even dubbed the Universe breakers. They think this might indicate that
what is called the Dark Ages may not have been so dark after all and that the Universe may have been
awash with star formation far earlier than they thought. At this stage, it is important to realise
that what they see in these early galaxies is just a dot of light and they admit that it may be that
some of those objects are obscured supermassive black holes, and what appears to be starlight
in the images could be gas and dust getting pulling in to the black hole. It may also be
that these galaxies are not red-shifted at all but instead are just intrinsically reddened galaxies.
Of course, this all assumes the Big Bang model is correct and that red-shift can only be equated
with age and distance. If on the other hand we just for a moment consider that this may not be
true what could this finding tell us? The idea that these are massive galaxies comes from the
idea that they appear highly redshifted. This places them in the Big Bang model at an extreme
distance from us. If you project the object that far away from us it has to become pretty massive
for us to be able to see it. But if instead the redshift was not caused by its distance but was
intrinsic to the object this would then mean it no longer needs to be at the extreme distance.
So what is it then? Halton Arp believed that active galaxies ejected material which would
later form into small quasars and eventually companion galaxies. He discovered many quasars
which seemed to be aligned with the axis of a galaxy. So could this be what we are seeing here?
In his model the quasars would be at a higher redshift to the parent galaxy and over time
this redshift would reduce until it matched the parent one. Could it be that these are actually
associated with another galaxy at a lower redshift? It is certainly a possibility. If
we examine some of the images of the objects we can see other larger objects in close proximity
but without a more detailed analysis of the objects surrounding it this is mere speculation.
Eric Lerner believes in a type of steady-state universe. This means there was no beginning and
the universe could be considered infinite. He viewed that light could not travel infinitely
but that over time energy was slowly removed causing it to become redshifted. So highly
redshifted objects are indeed objects that are further away but that distance does not mean
that they are younger. So in the case above what we might be seeing is a more mature galaxy at the
edges of the visible universe. It may also be that it is not a galaxy but instead a highly
energetic object. Eric Lerner has also written several papers outlining a concept where black
holes are actually a gigantic plasmoid. These are formed when large dust cloud contracts and ionise.
This causes filaments to form which twist around each other.
These form a highly compressed plasma torus at the centre which will eject material at both poles.
What is remarkable about this concept is that it comes directly from experiments he conducted
in his laboratory. This leads on to the idea of evolution. In conventional cosmology stars form
from collapsed dust which then groups to form smaller galaxies, who merge to become larger.
In both Halton Arp and Lerner's models this is not the case. Stars form out of the compressed
material that is formed in the proto-type galaxy. So stars form in situ inside the galaxy.
Lerner in particular talks about the stars forming along long filaments
which connect back to the central plasmoid. What evidence is there of these filaments?
Well, James Webb has also been looking at the detail in several galaxies.
Astronomers studying the process of star formation have often been hampered by our
inability to pierce the dense veil of gas, dust and plasma that surrounds them. The
James Webb Space Telescope is capable of peering through these to create some stunning images.
Using its high resolution and infrared capabilities they were able to reveal new
details in distant spiral galaxies. This reveals an intricate network of filaments. The spiral arms
appeared to contain a complex set of overlapping filaments along which stars can be clearly seen.
NGC 1433 is a barred spiral galaxy with a double-ring structure.
The central region has intense star-forming activity. The James Webb Space Telescope is
able to pierce through the dusty regions surrounding younger stars
and reveal the intricate details of the spiral arms in far more detail.
Moving on here is an image of M74 which is also known as the Phantom Galaxy. It is a large spiral
galaxy and contains 2 clearly defined spiral arms and is often used as an example of a grand design
spiral galaxy. The James Webb images reveal these in even more detail and show a very
fractal pattern to the filament structure in the arms of the spiral which we also see in nature
but we also see this fractal pattern in discharges, specifically cathode spots
When the infrared image is combined with the Hubble image it reveals the pink pockets of
star-forming regions all along the arms of the spiral arms which are all interconnected
by thin filaments that run throughout the arms almost like a root system in a forest.
The next image is of IC5332 which is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 30 mLY away.
It is also face-on from our viewpoint. We can clearly see the symmetrical spiral arms and
the complex web of plasma connecting them like a web and show the power of the JWST.