The universe is vast and mysterious. Compared with the limitations of the earth, the universe is the place that mankind really wants to explore. Only when the mysteries of the universe are understood can mankind truly become a great civilization.
To explore the secrets of the universe, what we can use is the power of science. With the help of the power of science, we can make a preliminary observation of the universe after we have walked out of the earth. For human beings, the scale of the vast universe is unimaginable. If we want to study the universe, it is impossible for us to be like a headless fly, without rules.
Although the universe is vast and vast, it seems boundless, but the basic units that make up the universe are not as vast as we thought. So what are the basic units that make up the universe? In fact, it is a galaxy similar to the Milky Way. I believe everyone knows that the Milky Way is composed of hundreds of billions of star systems, and our solar system is one of them.
From the perspective of the solar system, we think it is very broad, but from the perspective of the Milky Way, the solar system is very small, only about one light-year in diameter. The diameter of the Milky Way has reached more than 100,000 light-years, among which there are 100-400 billion stars. The stars we see in the night sky of the earth at night generally come from the deepest part of the Milky Way, the closest star to us. , There are 4.2 light years away.
Compared with the solar system, the Milky Way is a huge galaxy, but from the perspective of the universe, the Milky Way is also as small as dust and is the basic unit galaxy that composes the universe. So how many galaxies like the Milky Way exist in the entire universe? Scientists don’t have an accurate answer to this. Humans’ observing ability is still relatively weak. The expansion speed of the universe beyond 13.7 billion light-years exceeds the speed of light. We cannot see the situation there, so we have the design of observable universe. set.
Within the observable universe, scientists believe that there are trillions of galaxies similar to the Milky Way. To study the mysteries of the universe, we must first explore the mysteries that make up the basic units of the universe, that is, the mysteries of galaxies similar to the Milky Way. Only when the mystery of the formation of the Milky Way is revealed, we can further explore the ultimate mystery of the universe.
According to the Big Bang theory, the current universe originated from a singularity big bang 13.8 billion years ago. The universe expanded rapidly after its birth. After a period of chaos, it gradually stabilized, interstellar dust, gas clouds, dark matter, and stars. And so on to form a huge galaxy.
The newly born galaxy must be very unstable, and it will take a period of collision and fusion to finally stabilize. In the early days of our solar system, it was born in a solar nebula. The newly born solar system has 100 planets. The entire star system is very unstable. It is constantly colliding and fusing. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, it finally stabilized, and Eight planets were left behind.
The same is true for the Milky Way, which was unstable in its early stages. According to the early universe theory put forward by scientists, the Milky Way was the first batch of galaxies to appear in the universe, about 12 billion years ago. At that time, the universe was only 1.5 billion years old. After a period of evolution, it gradually stabilized.
The Milky Way 12 billion years ago is a newly born primitive galaxy, and the entire galaxy system is unstable. Is this conclusion correct? Last year, scientists published a new paper saying that a primitive galaxy similar to the Milky Way was discovered 12 billion light-years away from Earth.
This galaxy is the most distant galaxy discovered by mankind so far. It has a twinkling golden halo and looks very stable. We all know that the propagation speed of light is the speed of light. The galaxies we observe in the universe are actually the appearance of galaxies in the past, not the appearance of real-time galaxies. This galaxy 12 billion light-years away, what we see is also what it looked like 12 billion years ago. At that time, it was still a “baby galaxy”, a galaxy that was just born not long ago.
According to our current early universe theory, this galaxy should be very unstable, but the observed result is that it looks very stable and does not show a chaotic state. What is going on? The discovery of this galaxy may subvert our existing early theory of the universe.
As one of the first galaxies in the universe, the Milky Way was also in a state of chaos in the early stage of its birth. The birth of this galaxy 12 billion light-years away should be about the same time as the Milky Way. In theory, it should be in a state of chaos. Rather than the steady state we have observed.
According to scientists’ research on the universe, it is believed that galaxies were born after the Big Bang. Various dust in the universe first formed a large number of globular clusters, and then after a long period of instability, these globular clusters collided and destroyed each other. , And eventually gather together under the action of gravity to form a galaxy.
Through computer simulation analysis, scientists believe that one billion years after the Big Bang, the first galaxies in the universe were born. At this time, the galaxies were just formed and were very unstable. It would take at least hundreds of millions of years of evolution to stabilize. In theory, such an analysis is not wrong, because the early universe experienced stages of inflation and cooling.
In the past, the early universe theory believed that the galaxies in the early universe were chaotic and very unstable. However, the discovery of this 12 billion light-year-old “baby galaxy” has given scientists new insights. This trouble is undoubtedly very serious. Amazingly, it tells us that even in the early days of the universe, the universe was not as chaotic as we thought.
Or the appearance of galaxies may be much earlier than we originally thought. It is possible that the first galaxies will appear 500 million years after the birth of the universe. If this is the case, then the stability of this distant galaxy we have observed can be well understood. Of course, we have not yet observed a galaxy farther away than this, and we cannot determine when the first galaxies in the universe will be born.
Scientists say that in the future, we can uncover some truths about the early universe through further research on this distant galaxy. At the same time, we must continue to improve our observation capabilities, hoping to discover earlier galaxies and discover more “baby galaxies.” Only by discovering more can we finally form a perfect early theory of the universe, thus unveiling the tip of the iceberg of the universe.