From the very beginning of the scientific work of the space observatory James Webb (“James Webb”) became incoming messages about the discovery of galaxies in the young universe. Discoveries rained down like from a cornucopia, which surprised scientists very much. At this stage in the development of the Universe, there should not have been so many stars, and even more so galaxies. The antiquity of these objects had yet to be proven, and “James Webb” helped to point in this matter.
The age of objects in the Universe is determined by the redshift (parameter z). The greater the redshift, the older the stars and galaxies. Direct observations in visible and infrared radiation do not guarantee an accurate determination of z. The red spectrum of a star does not mean at all that it is at a certain distance from us. It can glow red, for example, due to special nuclear processes inside.
It is possible to accurately determine the magnitude of the redshift of stars and galaxies (from the stellar population) only by analyzing the spectrum. When observing the lines of the spectrum of molecular hydrogen, there is such marker, as the Lyman limit (wavelength 91.15 nm). After this limit, the spectrum breaks off, and from this mark it is easy to calculate the true value of the age of the star: enough observable (and therefore distorted by time and distance) values can be correlated with this boundary mark.
The James Webb Telescope carries a near-infrared spectral analysis (NIRSpec) instrument. This tool allowed us to accurately fix the Lyman limit for four new candidates for the most ancient galaxies discovered in the Universe. It took three days and 28 hours of continuous light collection from these objects to collect the data. The oldest galaxy confirmed by Webb has a redshift of z13.2. It arose less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, or in a segment of only 2% of the current time of the existence of the Universe.
It should be said that this particular work has not yet been peer-reviewed, but few scientists doubt that the early Universe is full of both stars and galaxies. More and more data from the Webb will certainly confirm this, which will force earthly science to reflect on our clearly erroneous idea of u200bu200bthe evolution of the universe at an early stage of development.
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