TapTechNews reports on May 11 that the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced yesterday that the 'China Sky Eye' FAST has recently discovered six neutral hydrogen galaxies located about 5 billion light-years from Earth. This is the most distant batch of neutral hydrogen galaxies detected by humanity so far.
Hydrogen, which often exists in the form of neutral hydrogen (HI), was the first element formed in the universe. It also plays a crucial role in the gas cycles of galaxies, providing fuel for star-forming regions and serving as a vital probe for studying the dynamic structures of galaxies. The rotational curves of neutral hydrogen provide observational evidence for the existence of dark matter, contributing significantly to the establishment of the standard cosmological model.
Researcher Peng Bo spearheaded the FAST Ultra-Deep Survey (FUDS) project, utilizing FAST's high sensitivity and the large field of view of its 19-beam receiver to conduct an in-depth 'blind search' for distant and faint neutral hydrogen galaxies.
The FUDS project team estimated the density of large mass neutral hydrogen galaxies in the sample, discovering that the universe, 4.2 billion years ago, hosted more large mass neutral hydrogen galaxies.
TapTechNews provides the reference link:
FAST Ultra-Deep Survey Discovers The Most Distant Neutral Hydrogen Galaxies - Evidence of More Massive Neutral HI Galaxies in the Universe 4.2 Billion Years Ago
The Most Distant HI Galaxies Discovered by the 500m Dish FAST