Just a week following revealing the first images taken by James Webb, this space telescope, considered the most advanced of its kind, may have found the most distant galaxy ever observed, which formed 13.5 billion years ago.
The galaxy called GLASS-z13 dates back 300 million years following the Big Bang, which is 100 million years older than any object ever observed, Rowan Naidoo of Harvard University’s Center for Astrophysics told AFP.
Naidoo is the lead author of a study analyzing data from what was observed by James Webb and still is. This data has been posted online to make it available to space scientists around the world.
One of James Webb’s main tasks is to observe the first galaxies that formed following the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
In astronomy, looking at the history of the universe requires going back in time to its past, for example, sunlight takes eight minutes to reach the Earth, so we see it as it was eight minutes ago. By looking as far as possible, we can identify objects as they were billions of years ago.
The light was emitted from GLASS-z13 13.5 billion years ago.
The results of the galaxy-related study have yet to be verified but have been published as a “preliminary version” to be quickly available to experts. Naidoo indicated that she has acquired a scientific journal that she will publish soon.
Before the results of the study became public, a large number of space scientists posted enthusiastic comments on this discovery via social media.
However, NASA Associate Administrator and Science Officer Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted, “Space discoveries are on the brink,” adding, “Yes, I tend to praise only verified scientific results. But this discovery looks very promising!”
Rohan Naidoo points out that another research team reached the same results that were mentioned in the study, which gives him more confidence in the results.
blurred vision in space
The galaxy was monitored by James Webb’s “Nercam” tool, and it was traced to the so-called “deep field”, which is a more comprehensive image taken with a long time display with the aim of observing the light lights.
One of the characteristics of James Webb is that it works in infrared, as the light emanating from more distant objects is extended and on its way “red” and changed to such wavelengths that humans cannot see with our own eyes.
In order to take a picture of this galaxy, then, the data was “translated” into the visible light range, and the galaxy appeared in the form of a red circle, blurring the vision, with white in its center.
But in fact, the two dozen researchers participating in the study studied two galaxies, the second named GLASS-z11 and closer than GLASS-z13.
The two galaxies have amazing properties due to the limited information known regarding them to date.
“The two galaxies looked very massive, and this is very soon following the big bang, which we don’t really understand,” says Naidoo.
It is currently impossible to determine when the two galaxies formed.
“We still have work to do,” the researcher says, as he and his colleagues asked for more time to observe through the telescope in order to perform spectroscopic analysis, a technique that reveals the characteristics of distant objects by analyzing the light captured from them.
James Webb was sent into space regarding six months ago. The $10 billion telescope is installed in an orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
It was equipped with enough fuel to keep it running for twenty years. In this way, astronomers expect to make discoveries related to the universe for a long time.