James Webb Space Telescope tagged posts

Webb Reveals Early-Universe Prequel to Huge Galaxy Cluster

Various multi-color galaxies on a black background, with specific close-ups of 7 faint red galaxies in a column on right
The seven galaxies highlighted in this James Webb Space Telescope image have been confirmed to be at a distance that astronomers refer to as redshift 7.9, which correlates to 650 million years after the big bang. This makes them the earliest galaxies yet to be spectroscopically confirmed as part of a developing cluster.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, T. Morishita (IPAC). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

Every giant was once a baby, though you may never have seen them at that stage of their development. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has begun to shed light on formative years in the history of the universe that have thus far been beyond reach: the formation and assembly of galaxies...

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New look at ‘Einstein Rings’ around distant Glaxies just got us Closer to Solving the Dark Matter Debate

ESA / Hubble & NASA
ESA / Hubble & NASA

A study using data from telescopes on Earth and in the sky resolves a problem plaguing astronomers working in the infrared and could help make better observations of the composition of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope and other instruments. The work is published April 20 in Nature Astronomy.

“We’re trying to measure the composition of gases inside galaxies,” said Yuguang Chen, a postdoctoral researcher working with Professor Tucker Jones in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis.

Most elements other than hydrogen, helium and lithium are produced inside stars, so the composition and distribution of heavier elements — especially the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen — can help astronomers understand how many and ...

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James Webb Space Telescope Images Challenge Theories of how Universe Evolved

Six candidate galaxies
Images of six candidate massive galaxies, seen 500-800 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/I. Labbe

Astronomers find that six of the earliest and most massive galaxy candidates observed by the James Webb Space Telescope so far appear to have converted nearly 100% of their available gas into stars, a finding at odds with the reigning model of cosmology.

The JWST appears to be finding multiple galaxies that grew too massive too soon after the Big Bang, if the standard model of cosmology is to be believed.

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, Mike Boylan-Kolchin, an associate professor of astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin, finds that six of the earliest and most massive galaxy candidates observed by JWST so far stand to contradict the preva...

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Webb Spots Surprisingly Massive Galaxies in early Universe

Inching towards the Big Bang: The James Webb telescope peers deep into space and time
Inching towards the Big Bang: The James Webb telescope peers deep into space and time.

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted six massive galaxies that emerged not long after the Big Bang, a study said Wednesday, surprising scientists by forming at a speed that contradicts our current understanding of the universe.

Since becoming operational last July, the Webb telescope has been peering farther than ever before into the universe’s distant reaches—which also means it is looking back in time.

For its latest discovery, the telescope spied galaxies from between 500 to 700 years million years after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, meaning the universe was under five percent of its current age.

Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which operates in the near infrared wavelength invis...

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