Unexpectedly, a Flow of Chilly Gas is Supplying the Distant Anthill Galaxy

This image taken by the ALMA telescope array shows a long stream of cold cosmic gas, seen as a blue line, that is flowing into the Anthill Galaxy. The large reservoir of gas inside the galaxy is shown in purple and dark blue. 


A long and frigid gas flow is supplying a faraway galaxy much like a lengthy, flexible straw. The discovery indicates a new way in which galaxies can expand in the early universe, according to a study published on March 31 in Science magazine.


Computer models anticipated that streams of gas would unite galaxies with the cosmic web yet astronomers thought the gas would be hot, thus eliminating it as a source of star-forming fuel and galaxy expansion.




Bjorn Emonts and his team of astronomers were astonished to find a flow of chilly, star-forming gas heading towards the Anthill Galaxy - a colossal galaxy, the light from which has been travelling to us on Earth for 12 billion years.


Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, the team discovered a stream while surveying the cold gas in the galaxy's surroundings. Dr. Emonts was specifically looking at the radio frequencies of light discharged by carbon atoms when the temperature is between -260° and -160° Celsius.

Emonts from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, VA remarks that the surprise was the drop in temperature of these streams.


In the data, a stream of cold gas extended at least 325,000 light-years from the galaxy. According to the team's calculations, the stream had 70 billion solar masses and was depositing about 450 solar masses of cold gas onto the galaxy each year. This rate would be enough to double the galaxy's mass in a billion years.

Emonts claims his team's use of ALMA in a setup that placed the instruments as close together as possible was something never seen before. This configuration provided a larger field of view, but with poorer resolution.

Emonts remarks that it is unusual for people to do the thing they did. "We essentially made ALMA as unfocused as it could be," he adds.

It is possible that galaxies in outer-space are sustained by structures alike, suggesting that galaxies in early stages primarily developed by partaking in the cosmic streams rather than through the current leading theory of forceful galactic unions.