Teenage galaxies in the distant Universe and the motions of their gas

This deep view of a tiny patch of sky in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) shows a selection of galaxies that were used in a new survey of the feeding habits of young galaxies as they grew through cosmic time. Each of the tiny blobs, galaxies seen as they were between three and five billion years after the Big Bang, has been studied in detail using ESO’s VLT and the SINFONI instrument. The colour maps show the motions of the gas in the galaxies. Blue indicates that the gas is moving towards us, compared to the galaxy as a whole, and red that the gas is receding. These colours allow astronomers to see if the galaxies is rotating like a disc or has some other behaviour.