the James-Webb telescope detects essentially the most distant recognized galaxy | EUROtoday

Published on : 05/30/2024 – 11:25 p.m.Modified : 05/31/2024 – 08:49

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It by no means ceases to shock. The James Webb Space Telescope has noticed essentially the most distant galaxy ever detected, which existed just some 290 million years after the Big Bang. Its brilliance amazed the crew of worldwide scientists who introduced this discovery on Thursday.

This galaxy has options with “profound implications” for our understanding of the early ages of the Universe, NASA mentioned.

Named JADES-GS-z14-0, it “is not the kind of galaxy predicted by theoretical models and computer simulations in the very young Universe”, declared in a press launch two researchers concerned on this discovery, Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainlin.

“It could contain evidence of oxygen”

“How could nature create such a luminous, massive and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?” they requested.

Kevin Hainline, from the University of Arizona within the United States, mentioned he “jumped” when he found the affirmation of his distance. “If the Universe was a two-hour film, this galaxy dates from the first two and a half minutes,” he defined in a video posted on social networks.

But she is “extremely strange”, he added. “It's very bright, quite large, it could contain evidence of oxygen, and given the size of the region we explored to find it, we could discover a lot more.”

Read additionallySpace: James-Webb and unbelievable galaxies

In astronomy, seeing far means going again in time. For instance, gentle from the Sun takes eight minutes to succeed in us, and we due to this fact see it because it was eight minutes in the past. By wanting so far as doable, we are able to understand objects as they have been billions of years in the past.

But the sunshine emitted by very distant objects stretched till it reached us, and “blurred” alongside the best way, passing right into a wavelength invisible to the bare eye: infrared.

The particularity of James-Webb, considered one of whose fundamental missions is to discover the very younger Universe, is to solely function within the infrared.

“The Universe seems to be teeming with very bright galaxies”

Since its launch in December 2021, the telescope had already noticed the galaxy up to now declared essentially the most distant, JADES-GS-z13-0, courting 320 million years after the Big Bang. The information introduced Thursday makes him break his personal document.

The gentle from this new galaxy took greater than 13.5 billion years to succeed in us. The Big Bang came about 13.8 billion years in the past.

But “the record does not count” and may very well be damaged once more, mentioned Kevin Hainline. “What matters is the fact that the Universe seems to be teeming with very bright galaxies.”

JADES-GS-z14-0 incorporates a variety of stars, “which is impressive considering the short time” handed between the Big Bang and the noticed second, he defined.

Read additionallyJames Webb Telescope Captures Magnificent 'Pillars of Creation'

The traces of oxygen detected arouse simply as a lot curiosity, as a result of this gasoline “requires that stars have lived their entire lives and then died in supernova explosions”.

The galaxy was first detected in January 2023 utilizing the NIRCam imager, nevertheless it was due to observations a 12 months later from one other telescope instrument, the NIRSpec spectrometer, that affirmation of its distance was delivered. .

The galaxy is greater than 1,600 gentle years throughout, and its mass is estimated to be a number of hundred million instances that of the Sun.

Articles on this discovery have been submitted for publication in scientific journals.

A jewel of expertise developed specifically by the American and European house companies, the James-Webb telescope is positioned 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It is used for observations by scientists around the globe.

“The amount of discoveries made about the young Universe in just two years, since the telescope started sending its scientific data, is crazy,” mentioned Kevin Hainline. And “with any luck, James-Webb will continue to provide us with results like these for decades to come.”

See additionallySpace: from observing the infinitely distant to looking for extraterrestrial life

With AFP