James Webb Space Telescope spots what may be the most distant galaxy yet found - CBS News

NASA reveals photos of farthest galaxies caught connected camera

NASA reveals photos of farthest galaxies caught connected camera 00:20

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a remote, reddish postulation shining conscionable 350 cardinal years aft the commencement of the cosmos 13.8 cardinal years ago, astonishing astronomers who are struggling to fig retired however stars and galaxies could person formed truthful rapidly successful the aftermath of the Big Bang, researchers said Thursday.

"These observations conscionable marque your caput explode," Paola Santini, a co-author of a insubstantial describing the find successful the Astrophysical Journal Letters, said successful a statement. "This is simply a full caller section successful astronomy. It's similar an archaeological dig, and abruptly you find a mislaid metropolis oregon thing you didn't cognize about. It's conscionable staggering."

What appears to beryllium the astir distant postulation yet detected shows up arsenic a tiny reddish dot successful this James Webb Space Telescope image. Data investigation indicates the postulation was shining conscionable 350 cardinal years aft the Big Bang commencement of the cosmos, immoderate 50 cardinal years earlier than the erstwhile grounds holder. NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA); representation processing: Zolt G. Levay (STScI)

No 1 yet knows erstwhile the archetypal stars turned connected aft the alleged "dark ages" ended and airy archetypal began to question freely done the universe. But "I deliberation thing earlier than 100 cardinal years would conscionable beryllium truly weird," Garth Illingworth, a Webb astronomer and prof astatine the University of California Santa Cruz, told reporters.

"We were mostly reasoning a mates of 100 cardinal years was apt to beryllium wherever the precise archetypal things formed," helium said. "But these galaxies perchance are truthful monolithic that it whitethorn propulsion america backmost earlier than that 2 hundred. This is truly a large unfastened question -- erstwhile did the archetypal stars form? And truthful these galaxies, I think, volition beryllium a pathfinder to that."

The galaxies successful question are GLASS-z12, shining 350 cardinal years aft the Big Bang, and different dating backmost to 450 cardinal years, discovered aft conscionable 4 days of investigation arsenic portion of the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space, oregon GLASS, observing program.

As the sanction implies, the highly distant galaxies were recovered successful airy being gravitationally magnified by the wide of a nearer postulation cluster. The 2 observations straddle the erstwhile Hubble grounds holder, postulation GN-z11, which was dated to astir 400 cardinal years.

The ages of the recently discovered galaxies are not yet afloat confirmed — further spectroscopic investigation is required for that — but astronomers said the observations amusement wide signs of galore perchance older galaxies, which would propulsion prima enactment backmost adjacent person to the Big Bang.

A 2nd postulation recovered by Webb dates backmost to 450 cardinal years aft the Big Bang 13.8 cardinal years ago. Larger galaxies successful the representation are members of a nearer postulation cluster. Light from the overmuch much distant galaxies was magnified, oregon gravitationally lensed, by the immense wide of the intervening cluster. NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA); representation processing: Zolt G. Levay (STScI)

"These galaxies would person had to person started coming unneurotic possibly conscionable 100 cardinal years aft the Big Bang," Illingworth said successful a NASA statement. "Nobody expected that the acheronian ages would person ended truthful early. The primal beingness would person been conscionable 1 hundredth its existent age. It's a sliver of clip successful the 13.8 billion-year-old evolving cosmos."

Tommaso Treu, main researcher for the GLASS task and a prof astatine the University of California astatine Los Angeles, said the survey was meant "to beryllium a mode for the astronomical assemblage to get a speedy look astatine what surprises the beingness had prepared for us."

"And the beingness and JWST did not fto let america down," helium said. "As soon arsenic we started taking data, we discovered determination are galore much luminous distant galaxies than we had been expecting. Somehow, the beingness has managed to signifier galaxies faster and earlier than we thought.

"Just a fewer 100 cardinal years aft the Big Bang determination are tons of galaxies. JWST has opened up a caller frontier, bringing america person to knowing however it each began. And we person conscionable started to research it."

The James Webb Space Telescope is the astir almighty abstraction observatory ever launched, equipped with a segmented 21.3-foot-wide reflector and 4 delicate cameras and spectroscopic detectors operating astatine little than 50 degrees supra implicit zero.

The ultra-low somesthesia is required to alteration the scope to capture faint light that has been stretched into the infrared portion of the spectrum by the enlargement of abstraction itself implicit the beingness of the cosmos.

Launched connected Christmas Day past year, JWST is successful its 5th period of subject operations.

"JWST has been a acquisition that has taken months to unwrap and the effect was that astir crossed the board, the observatory is much almighty than our pre-launch expectations," said Jane Rigby, Webb operations task idiosyncratic astatine NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"The images are sharper, the pointing and guiding are much stable, with darker skies, darker backgrounds and greater, amended sensitivity." The archetypal results from the GLASS project, she added, "are conscionable immoderate of the flood of caller discoveries that are pouring in. Just arsenic we hoped,"

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