2024-06-14 04:00:12
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revolutionized our understanding of the chemical evolution of the Universe by detecting a key element for life in the early ages of the Universe. This discovery promises to rewrite theories about how the first galaxies formed and how the elements were created.
Current knowledge about the formation of metals in the Universe is based on the idea that elements heavier than hydrogen andhéliumcalled metals by astronomers, formed in stars and were scattered by supernova explosions. It was widely believed that this process required several generations of stars for these metals to become abundant.
The recent discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope challenges this notion. By observing a distant galaxy as it appeared 350 million years after the Big Bangscientists have identified a cloud of carbone. This is the oldest detection of an element other than hydrogen in the young Universe. This observation was carried out using the near spectrograph infrared of Telescope Spatial James Webb, who helped to break down the light old and read the chemical composition of this galaxy primitive, GS-z12.
The new discovery stands in stark contrast to previous theories. Roberto Maiolino, a professor at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, says previous research suggested that carbon began to form in large quantities around a billion years after the Big Bang. However, the presence of carbon detected by the James Webb Space Telescope shows that this element formed much earlier, challenging our ideas about the first metals in the Universe.
The implications of this discovery for science are vast. It suggests that the process of carbon enrichment may have occurred much more quickly than expected in the early Universe. This challenges our understanding of how galaxies and stars formed, and opens new perspectives on how the elements necessary for life were dispersed throughout the Universe.
A deep-field image from JWST, showing the early Universe.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA)
Looking ahead, this discovery raises many questions. How did carbon form so early? What were the characteristics of the first stars? The researchers hope that future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope and other telescopes will help answer these questions and deepen our understanding of the early Universe.
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