- #1
Aquafire
- 49
- 1
This is my first post, so I am going to get straight into a double barreled question that has been bugging me for a while.
(1) How long does it take for stars to conglomerate around a general loci, in order to form a proto-galaxy. ?
I ask this in the light of the most recent Hubble images of a yet un-named galaxy cluster reported to be between 13 to 14 Billion years old. As of the moment, it happens to be the oldest known galaxy ever recorded.
What troubles me and causes some confusion ( at least in my mind ) is this.
Given the time between the Big Bang, ( BB ) the inflationary period and the so named "Dark Ages" before the first stars lit up is only about 800 to 900 million years. At least half if not two thirds of that period, the only matter that existed was mostly hydrogen and some helium.
So it seems ( to me at least ) that proto~stars and proto~galaxies must have been forming during the so called dark ages or almost immediately afterwards.
That probably will be easy for someone to explain to me.
So we arrive to question (2).
How is it that over a dozen Quasars have been discovered in connection to this extremely old proto~galaxy ?
I am not clear if they were detected within the body of the galaxy or outside of it. Either way, they a reported to be the same age.
No doubt someone will point out the error in my thinking, but I am troubled by the limited time~frame within which all of the above things could have occured.
I say this because, I would have thought that more than a mere 300 to 500 million years** after the BB, would be needed for... (A) things as complex as galaxial structures to form and (B) for massive stars to have utterly exhausted their fuel ( remembering the prodigious amounts of raw material at hand at this early stage of the universe) before collapsing to form Quasars.
I would appreciate some help on what truly baffles me.
Aqua.
** If my memory serves me correctly, that original period of 800 to 900 million years after the BB, included 500 million years of reionization when there was no matter heavier than hydrogen and helium, plus radiation.
So the time period in question for all of the above things to have formed such complex structures or to have formed Quasars, narrows down to an even smaller slice of time. A band of probably not more than 350 to 400 million years.
Is there something I am missing out here, or is there some sort of time measurement problem ?
(1) How long does it take for stars to conglomerate around a general loci, in order to form a proto-galaxy. ?
I ask this in the light of the most recent Hubble images of a yet un-named galaxy cluster reported to be between 13 to 14 Billion years old. As of the moment, it happens to be the oldest known galaxy ever recorded.
What troubles me and causes some confusion ( at least in my mind ) is this.
Given the time between the Big Bang, ( BB ) the inflationary period and the so named "Dark Ages" before the first stars lit up is only about 800 to 900 million years. At least half if not two thirds of that period, the only matter that existed was mostly hydrogen and some helium.
So it seems ( to me at least ) that proto~stars and proto~galaxies must have been forming during the so called dark ages or almost immediately afterwards.
That probably will be easy for someone to explain to me.
So we arrive to question (2).
How is it that over a dozen Quasars have been discovered in connection to this extremely old proto~galaxy ?
I am not clear if they were detected within the body of the galaxy or outside of it. Either way, they a reported to be the same age.
No doubt someone will point out the error in my thinking, but I am troubled by the limited time~frame within which all of the above things could have occured.
I say this because, I would have thought that more than a mere 300 to 500 million years** after the BB, would be needed for... (A) things as complex as galaxial structures to form and (B) for massive stars to have utterly exhausted their fuel ( remembering the prodigious amounts of raw material at hand at this early stage of the universe) before collapsing to form Quasars.
I would appreciate some help on what truly baffles me.
Aqua.
** If my memory serves me correctly, that original period of 800 to 900 million years after the BB, included 500 million years of reionization when there was no matter heavier than hydrogen and helium, plus radiation.
So the time period in question for all of the above things to have formed such complex structures or to have formed Quasars, narrows down to an even smaller slice of time. A band of probably not more than 350 to 400 million years.
Is there something I am missing out here, or is there some sort of time measurement problem ?
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