JWST Detects the Earliest, Most Distant Galaxy in the Known Universe—And It’s Super Weird
JWST Detects the Earliest, Most Distant Galaxy in the Known Universe—And It’s Super Weird
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed an unusually large and highly luminous galaxy at a record-breaking 290 million years after the big bang
Summ:
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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered the most distant galaxy ever confirmed, named JADES-GS-z14-0, which appears as it existed just 290 million years after the Big Bang.
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The discovery of this surprisingly luminous and massive early galaxy challenges theories about how galaxies formed in the cosmic dawn
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JWST has been repeatedly breaking its own records for the most distant galaxies since beginning operations in 2022
more about:
“A redshift of one corresponds to a distance of more than 10 billion light-years. JWST’s studies showed that JADES-GS-z14-0 has a redshift of 14.32, the highest ever recorded.”
Wow!
“Usually gases like oxygen show up only after large groups of stars have lived their lives and died in supernova explosions,” Hainline says. “So seeing oxygen in a galaxy this young is like if you are an anthropologist and you find an enormous, ancient city that has evidence of iPhones.”
That just boggles the mind!
Can’t wait to get more data on this wee, spry, bizarre find.
It is an entire, whole ass galaxy. I do not think it fits any definition of wee.
Size is relative and our perception of time (and the way we measure it) requires us to use numbers so large, most people can't really visualize at the scales we are talking about.
Off the top of your head, can you visualize how much space 10 billion apples would take up? Sure, you could calculate it, but it's likely not something you could instantly visualize in your head.
Honestly, I don't know how to solve for that problem.
If you enjoy the topic, my favorite astrophysicist, Dr. Becky, covered this discovery in her latest video!
Why? Earlier galaxies had often bigger stars and supergiants & co. don't live long but fuse to oxygen too, no?
142.3 billion light years 🤯
It’s a shame that things like this don’t make national headlines. I sometimes daydream about how cool it would be if we were all collectively interested in these things.
The only way you're going to get the majority of Americans to pay attention to this is if you tell them that the Galaxy just got an abortion.
OR aliens
The fuck are you crying about? I’ve seen JWST-related news consistently since its debut and not just from science/space-focused media but here you are saying America never talks about it?
Here’s one just 3 days ago https://www.newsweek.com/supermassive-black-hole-larger-early-universe-1916653
CBS has a running tag for JWST with many articles: https://www.cbsnews.com/tag/james-webb-space-telescope/
USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/search/?q=James+Webb+space+telescope+
And many more, the New Yorker, ny times, the guardian, I could go on and on. They all post JWST consistently for YEARS now.
Speaking of the guardian, they posted about this exact discovery A MONTH AGO: https://amp.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/31/james-webb-space-telescope-photographs-most-distant-known-galaxy
Unexpected brightness of JADES-GS-z14-0 means telescope could capture images of galaxies even further away
Most of these examples I’m giving are common outlets that I don’t actually follow but many do. It’s not some niche content you must seek to find.
Wow… no need for the hostility. It seems you completely missed my point entirely. Like… ENTIRELY.
What I meant was:
It’s a shame random people on the internet don’t consider this to be big news. Post like this get few comments and discussions, or bullshit negativity is incredibly popular and net tons of discussions.
So imagine if PEOPLE- not websites found this interesting.
Hope this clears things up and in the future, maybe try not an be so hostile about things you might not understand properly.
Some theories might allude that such brightness comes from a burgeoning supermassive black hole feasting on gas at the center of JADES-GS-z14-0. But in that case, light is usually concentrated into a much smaller region.
Instead the best explanation Hainline and colleagues have found is that this exceedingly young galaxy has somehow already manufactured about a half billion stars.
. . . How could a galaxy so young have already sparked so many stellar generations? “Usually gases like oxygen show up only after large groups of stars have lived their lives and died in supernova explosions,” Hainline says. “So seeing oxygen in a galaxy this young is like if you are an anthropologist and you find an enormous, ancient city that has evidence of iPhones.”
There was some talk recently that perhaps the universe is as a much as twice as old as we suspected, which could account for (some?) aspects of it we try to explain with dark matter. I wonder if this discovery lends any weight to that?
Wait, if that galaxy didn't form at the exact same point where the big bang happened (we wouldn't see it then), then it is likely older. Or the universe is older.
New theories suggest the second one.
Does anyone have any good YouTube channels for these type of space discoveries?
PBS Space Time is pretty great
It's great but not really what they asked for. They don't really cover new things in that way, they go in depth about specific things with the most recent knowledge, not new discoveries like this post is about.
I really like Anton Petrov, he reviews individual papers as they are published. Not sure if he covered this one.
Just want to highlight this channel, it's a great resource and his group does a free weekly newsletter you can sign up for as well as the video version on his channel. He covers users questions on live streams a lot of times and goes in-depth with interviews and space topics covering just about everything.
Good suggestions but none of them beats Anton Petrov IMO:
But JADES-GS-z14-0 has properties that are vastly different from its slightly
olderyounger counterpartftfy... at least, I think that's what they meant.
edit: After discussion, I think I see that I might be a candidate for "people incorrectly correcting others".
Huh... that made my brain do a few twists. The reference point for distance would be our own galaxy (I assume). So you would think that the furthest one would be the "oldest" due to expansion of the universe... so I would think that you're correct in your correction?
Unless they meant "older" in the sense of "discovered earlier"? I have no idea anymore, I guess they could argue it either way
Edit: After re-reading it, I think they're just referring "Younger" and "Older" to how the galaxies appear to us (due to the time it takes light to travel). As in, the newest discovery is "younger" because that's the age that we can observe it as, by the time the light has reached us. Idk anymore, I know nothing lol
That looks like an alien vessel
That's the telescope
Edit: Adding the official deployment animation
I know 😁
Pretty sure it's alien dyson spheres all the way down, that's the only logical explanation here.
Lol yeah