James Webb telescope uncovers giant galaxies near Big Bang
February 22, 2023
The six candidate galaxies could rewrite the current understanding of the early universe and how galaxies form.
The six gigantic galaxies could change science's current understanding of the universeImage: NASA/ESA/CSA/I. Labbe (Swinburne University of Technology/REUTERS
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The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered six gigantic galaxies that emerged shortly after the Big Bang, a study said, stunning scientists by forming at a speed that upends the current understanding of the early universe.
Since becoming operational last July, the James Webb telescope has been giving insights into the universe's distant reaches. Astronomers on Wednesday said data obtained by the telescope revealed what appear to be six big galaxies as mature as the Milky Way. These galaxies are estimated to have existed about 540 million to 770 million years after the Big Bang.
What did the researchers say?
Lead researcher Ivo Labbe of Australia's Swinburne University of Technology expected to find extremely small galaxies this close to the dawn of the universe, but he found giants.
"While most galaxies in this era are still small and only gradually growing larger over time, there are a few monsters that fast-track to maturity," he said. "Why this is the case or how this would work is unknown."
"This is an astounding discovery and unexpected. We thought that galaxies form over much longer periods of time," said Penn State astrophysicist and study co-author Joel Leja. "No one expected to find these. These galaxy candidates are simply too evolved for our expectations. They seem to have evolved faster than allowed by our standard models."
The latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope has been in action since July 2022. The latest images continue to stun the world and help advance our understanding of the universe.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Lawson (GSFC), J. Schlieder (GSFC), A. Pagan (STScI)
Dusty disks of a red dwarf star
A dusty debris disk surrounds red dwarf star AU Mic, 32 light-years away from Earth. The star is marked in white. Debris disks are continuously replenished by collisions of solid dust clumps called planetesimals. The two images were taken using different wavelengths. In the blue image, the disk appears to be shorter, indicating fine dust scatters shorter-wavelength blue light.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Lawson (GSFC), J. Schlieder (GSFC), A. Pagan (STScI)
Webb reveals previously shrouded newborn stars
Astronomers dug deep into the data from this near-infrared image of the star-forming region in the constellation Carina known as the cosmic cliffs. Webb’s infrared camera penetrated clouds of dust, allowing astronomers to discover signs of two dozen infant stars.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA AND STSCI
Hydrogen recycling in Stephan’s Quintet
Astronomers discovered a recycling plant for hydrogen gas in Stephan’s Quintet, 270 million light-years away. In the left image, a giant cloud of cold hydrogen gas (green) is stretched into a warm tail of hydrogen over and over again. In the center, a high-speed collision feeds warm gas into cold gas clouds. On the right, hydrogen gas has collapsed, forming what may be a small dwarf galaxy.
Image: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/JWST/ P. Appleton (Caltech), B.Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
An exoplanet without an atmosphere
Exoplanet LHS 475 b is almost exactly the same size as Earth. Webb's near-infrared spectograph found the planet has no atmosphere. The white data dots are in a pattern consistent with a planet that has no atmosphere (yellow line). If the planet had a pure carbon dioxide atmosphere, the dots would follow the purple line, if it had a pure methane atmosphere it would follow the green line.
Image: ILLUSTRATION: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)/SCIENCE: Kevin B. Stevenson (APL), Jacob A. Lustig-Yaeger (APL), Erin M. May (APL), Guangwei Fu (JHU), Sarah E. Moran (University of Arizona)
Webb captures galaxy in much higher detail compared to Hubble
These two images show the same galaxy, EGS23205, about 11 billion years ago. In the left image, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a fuzzy shot of the galaxy. But the James Webb Telescope image on the right reveals a spiral galaxy with a clear stellar bar.
Image: NASA/CEERS/University of Texas at Austin
Ancient 'green pea' galaxies
The trio of galaxies circled here are "green pea" galaxies. They are rare, small galaxies found much closer to home. These images show the galaxies as they existed when the universe was in its first billion years of its current age of 13.8 billion years.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Star formation in dusty ribbons
This cluster of stars, named NGC 346, lies within a nebula. That's a place where stars and planets are formed in clouds packed with dust and hydrogen. The pinker plumes are energized hydrogen as hot as 10,000 degrees Celsius (18,000 degrees Fahrenheit), while the more orange gas represents denser, colder hydrogen at around -200 Celsius.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Meixner, G. DeMarchi, O. Jones, L. Lenkic, L. Chu, A. Pagan (STScI)
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Leja called them galaxy candidates because further observations were needed to confirm that they all were galaxies rather than another source of light such as a supermassive black hole.
"The exciting part is that even if only some turn out to be massive galaxies, these things are so massive that they alone would upend our measurements of the total mass in stars at this time. It would suggest 10 to 100 times more mass in stars existing at this epoch than expected and would imply that galaxies form way, way faster in the universe than anyone thought."
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Dark matter deemed crucial for the formation of galaxies
The galaxies appeared to contain mass equivalent to 10 billion to 100 billion times that of the sun, with the 100 billion times figure being similar to the Milky Way's mass.
Galaxy formation after the Big Bang has been assumed to be dependent on dark matter, an invisible matter that has a gravitational influence on normal matter.
"The leading theory is that an ocean of dark matter filled the early universe after the Big Bang," Labbe said.
"This dark matter, we don't know what it actually is, started out really smooth, with only the tiniest of ripples. These ripples grew over time due to gravity and eventually the dark matter started to collect in concentrated clumps, dragging hydrogen gas along for the ride. It's that hydrogen gas that will eventually turn into stars. Clumps of dark matter, gas and stars is what we call a galaxy," Labbe added.
"Their explosion set off the chain of events that formed subsequent generations of stars," Labbe said.
"Webb continues to amaze and surprise us," Labbe added. "So yes, the early universe was a lot richer and a lot more diverse — monsters and dragons. And the curtain is still being lifted."
los/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)
How the Webb telescope captures breathtaking images
