Astronomers discover ‘fossil galaxy’ 3 billion light-years away.

A galaxy that has remained unchanged for 7 billion years — a rarity in the universe — has been observed by astronomers, offering a glimpse into cosmic history and adding to an enigmatic collection of objects called relics or “fossil galaxies.”

These space oddities are galaxies that, after an initial phase of intense star formation, escape their expected evolutionary path. While other galaxies expand and merge with one another, the fossil galaxies remain virtually inactive. Like celestial time capsules, they provide a snapshot into the ancient universe and allow astronomers to examine the mechanism of galaxy formation.

The newly discovered fossil galaxy — named KiDS J0842+0059 — is about 3 billion light-years from Earth, making it both the most distant and the first of its kind observed outside the local universe, the region of space closest to Earth that is approximately 1 billion light-years in radius. It was found by a team of astronomers led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), using high-resolution imaging from the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com

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