Comparison of rotating disc galaxies in the distant Universe and the present day

Schematic representation of rotating disc galaxies in the distant Universe and the present day. Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope suggest that such massive star-forming disc galaxies in the early Universe were less influenced by dark matter. As a result the outer parts of distant galaxies rotate more slowly than comparable regions of galaxies in the local Universe. Their rotations curves, rather than being flat, drop with increasing radius.