Oxygen Discovered in Galaxy Twice Milky Way's Size, 12 Billion Years Old: Is There Life?
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Oxygen Found in 12 Billion-Year-Old Galaxy NGC 1365: Unlocking Cosmic History
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News18•24-03-2026, 23:30
Oxygen Found in 12 Billion-Year-Old Galaxy NGC 1365: Unlocking Cosmic History
•Scientists have for the first time read the entire past of a galaxy outside our Milky Way, NGC 1365, located 56 million light-years away.
•The study used chemical fingerprints, specifically tracking oxygen patterns, to reveal a 12-billion-year growth story of NGC 1365, published in Nature Astronomy.
•NGC 1365 is a barred spiral galaxy, approximately 200,000 light-years wide and twice the size of the Milky Way, viewed face-on for clear structural and chemical analysis.
•The galaxy's growth involved collisions with dwarf galaxies, gas inflow, and new star formation, with its central part forming quickly and accumulating high oxygen levels.
•This research, matching real data with Illustris Project simulations, establishes 'extragalactic archaeology' and will help understand galaxy formation and the Milky Way's uniqueness.