NASA’s James Webb Telescope has found the most distant galaxy in the universe, providing a stunning glimpse into the distant cosmic past.
The light from the galaxy, called JADES-GS-z14-0, took about 13.5 billion years to reach us, so the light began its journey only 300 million years after the Big Bang.
The newly discovered galaxy measures 1,600 light years in diameter, meaning it takes light 1,600 years to travel from one end to the other.
Experts say JADES-GS-z14-0 is “remarkable for how large and bright it is,” and its young stars produce large amounts of light.
The $10 billion James Webb Telescope, capable of “seeing back in time,” has also found the second most distant galaxy in the universe, called JADES-GS-z14-1.
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have found an unprecedented galaxy observed just 300 million years after the Big Bang.
The galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 existed only 300 million years after the big bang (which occurred about 13.8 billion years ago)
Brant Robertson, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz and co-author of a new studyHe called the discovery “completely unexpected.”
“It is likely to be considered the most important extragalactic discovery made to date by the James Webb Space Telescope,” he said.
“This galaxy (JADES-GS-z14-0) is truly a gem and points to more hidden treasures in the early universe.”
The James Webb Telescope is often described as being able to “see back in time” and, although it may seem fantastic, it is actually true.
Because the universe is so vast, light from one galaxy can take billions of years to reach another galaxy.
When light from a distant galaxy finally reaches us, the light reveals a “snapshot” of the galaxy as it was when it began its journey billions of years ago.
In this case, the light from JADES-GS-z14-0, recently detected by the James Webb telescope, began its journey about 13.5 billion years ago, co-author Dr Francesco D’Eugenio, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge. .
At that time, the distance between JADES-GS-z14-0 and the time when our galaxy (the Milky Way) would eventually form was only 2 billion light years.
Webb’s infrared capabilities allow him to “see back in time” to the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago. Light waves move extremely fast, about 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second, every second. The further away an object is, the further back in time we look. This is due to the time it takes for light to travel from the object to us.
The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the Sun, 1 million miles from Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point, or L2. When light from a distant galaxy finally reaches the James Webb Telescope (which is located relatively close to our sun), the light reveals a “snapshot” of the galaxy as it was when it began its journey billions of years ago.
But because the universe has since expanded enormously, the distance between JADES-GS-z14-0 is now more like 34 billion years.
“If we could freeze time right now and put a ruler between us and GS-z14-0, we would measure a distance of about 34 billion light years; that’s how much space has been added,” said Dr. D. ‘Eugenio.
When light from more distant galaxies reaches Earth, the expansion of the universe has stretched it and shifted it into the infrared region of the light spectrum, which Webb is equipped to detect with unprecedented clarity.
Many of the most luminous galaxies produce most of their light through gas falling into a supermassive black hole.
But the team says the large size of JADES-GS-z14-0 means the light must be produced by young stars.
Astronomers first detected JADES-GS-z14-0 in early 2023, but needed more observations to be sure this was truly a record-breaker and not a “confusing weirdo.”
It was very close to the other, less distant galaxy (JADES-GS-z14-1), which both appeared to be part of a larger object.
JADES-GS-z14-0, the light from the galaxy took about 13.5 billion years to reach us, so the light began its journey only 300 million years after the Big Bang (which occurred 13 .8 billion years).
For the past two years, scientists have used James Webb to explore what astronomers call “cosmic dawn”: the period of the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang in which the first galaxies were born.
These galaxies provide vital information about the ways gas, stars and black holes changed when the universe was very young.
Since coming online in 2022, the Webb telescope has ushered in a new era of scientific advances, looking further than ever into the distant reaches of the universe.
It revealed its first set of images in July 2022, including a dying star covered in dust and a “cosmic dance” between a group of galaxies.
Other striking images include the “Pillars of Creation,” the rings of Neptune, a “cartwheel galaxy,” and a stellar nursery known as the Tarantula Nebula.
The James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope is designed to detect light from the first stars and galaxies
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that could help unlock the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to observe the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
The huge telescope, which has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn), is seen as a successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of about 40 Kelvin, about -387 Fahrenheit (-233 Celsius).
It is the largest and most powerful orbital space telescope in the world, capable of looking back 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, since the two will work together for a while.
The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 via the space shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It orbits the Earth at a speed of about 17,000 mph (27,300 kph) in low-Earth orbit at about 340 miles altitude.
