290 million years after the Big Bang: Most distant galaxy confirmed
Initial data suggested that the James Webb space telescope is seeing unexpectedly large galaxies unexpectedly early. Now there is further confirmation of this.
JADES-GS-z14-0, now officially the most distant galaxy we know of.
(Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA))
Precise spectral studies with the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that a galaxy called JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant we have found so far. According to the analyses, we see it in a state that it assumed only 290 million years after the Big Bang, writes NASA. Not only is it unexpectedly bright and large, but the possible presence of oxygen is also surprising. According to the research team, several generations of massive stars must have already formed and passed away by this time. Our theories and computer models of the early universe would not predict such an object.
One answer, many new questions
The record galaxy was found as part of the "JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey" (JADES) program to search for particularly early-forming galaxies. The previous record holder JADES-GS-z13-0 had already been discovered in this way. However, while this can be seen in a state around 320 million years after the Big Bang, JADES-GS-z14-0 is another 30 million years older. But precisely because the latter is so bright and should consist of stars with a combined mass of hundreds of millions of solar masses, there had been doubts about the distance determined. However, spectral data collected over a period of ten hours in January had now clearly confirmed the age and at the same time raised many new questions.
Considering the data collected, it was determined that the galaxy has a diameter of around 1600 light years, explains astronomer Stefano Carniani, who was involved in the analysis. According to him, the light captured by the space telescope comes mainly from young stars and not from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. How the galaxy grew to its size in less than 300 million years is completely unclear. Because it was found by looking for a comparatively small section of the sky, it can also be assumed that many similar galaxies are still waiting to be discovered - possibly even closer to the Big Bang.
The James Webb Space Telescope looks out into space at the Lagrange point L2, facing away from the sun, earth and moon, so that their thermal radiation does not interfere with the infrared telescope. A huge protective screen blocks this - with a light protection factor of one million. Almost immediately after its commissioning, it began to discover more and more candidates for unexpectedly advanced galaxies that existed much earlier after the Big Bang than was thought possible. It has therefore been pointed out for some time that our theoretical foundations appear to be at least insufficient. The research work on the new record holder is still under review, but can already be viewed on ArXiv.
(mho)