Ultra-Dense Galaxies In the Early Universe

Science Daily is reporting on the characterization of a population of ancient galaxies, formed less than 3 billion years after the Big Bang, that are as massive as some modern galaxies but are only 1/20 the size. Each of the 9 compact galaxies found is less than 5,000 light-years across, and could fit comfortably inside the Milky Way's central hub (if you moved the supermassive black hole out first). The stars in these galaxies were 1/2 to 1 billion years old when observed and at least one generation of massive stars had already exploded as supernovae.

Comments

Re:A science fiction reference

[MightyMartian]

Poul Anderson's Tau Zero makes the suggestion that interstellar contacts between races are more likely in the beginning of the universe than towards the end, simply because all matter will spread so far apart and there won't be enough fuel to move around.

That's a little silly. Even though the galaxies and stars must have been much closer together again, I don't think that any period where the distance would have made any substantial distance to traversing interstellar or intergalactic distances that the universe would have been around long enough to produce intelligent life, and, considering if these kinds of galaxies were the norm, I'm not even sure life, or at least complex life, would even be possible. Densely packed galaxies like this, with supernovae going off, would likely be very very radiation-rich.