Thread: High heavy element content in galaxies 1.8 billion years after bigbang

Is this real or is it possible the explosion was rich in heavy elements and they are seeing light already with these absorption lines reflected off dust in the other galaxy?

Bright Space Explosion Reveals Surprising Ingredients of Galaxies | Universe Evolution & Distant Galaxies | Space Explosions, Gamma-ray Bursts & ESO Images | Space.com

Could you clarify your question, particularly the part after "and"?

Originally Posted by mathman

Could you clarify your question, particularly the part after "and"?

Is it possible the heavy elements only existed in the gamma-ray burst explosion?
Did the light from the explosion have the absorption lines in it, before it was reflected of something in the other galaxy?
It looks like they(the astronomers) are assuming energy from the explosion caused the light to be emitted from the second galaxy not just reflected or go through it?

Otherwise it is very hard to see how a small galaxy can survive the number of supernovae explosion required to get that rich in heavy elements so quickly and still be producing stars.