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NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope shows galaxy MoM-z14 \u2013 credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Rohan Naidu (MIT); Image Processing Joseph DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope shows galaxy MoM-z14 \u2013 credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Rohan Naidu (MIT); Image Processing Joseph DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed a mere 280 million years after the Big Bang; so close to the beginning of the universe as we understand.<\/p>\n
GNN reported on the last such discovery,<\/a> a galaxy 300 million years after, and scientists are now certain that James Webb will break every such record until the earliest observable light is eventually detected.<\/p>\n The newly confirmed galaxy, MoM-z14, holds intriguing clues to the universe\u2019s historical timeline and just how different a place the early universe was than astronomers expected.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Webb, we are able to see farther than humans ever have before, and it looks nothing like what we predicted, which is both challenging and exciting,\u201d said Rohan Naidu of the MIT\u2019s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and lead author of a paper on galaxy MoM-z14 published<\/a> in the Open Journal of Astrophysics.<\/p>\n Due to the expansion of the universe that is driven by dark energy, discussion of physical distances and \u201cyears ago\u201d becomes tricky when looking this far. Using Webb\u2019s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers confirmed that MoM-z14 has a cosmological redshift of 14.44, meaning that its light has been travelling through (expanding) space, being stretched and \u201cshifted\u201d to longer, redder wavelengths, for about 13.5 of the universe\u2019s estimated 13.8 billion years of existence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can estimate the distance of galaxies from images, but it\u2019s really important to follow up and confirm with more detailed spectroscopy so that we know exactly what we are seeing, and when,\u201d said<\/a> Pascal Oesch of the University of Geneva, co-principal investigator of the survey.<\/p>\n MoM-z14 is one of a growing group of surprisingly bright galaxies in the early universe\u2014 100 times more than theoretical studies predicted before the launch of Webb, according to the research team.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a growing chasm between theory and observation related to the early universe, which presents compelling questions to be explored going forward,\u201d said Jacob Shen, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and a member of the research team.<\/p>\n One place researchers and theorists can look for answers is the oldest population of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. A small percentage of these stars have shown high amounts of nitrogen, which is also showing up in some of Webb\u2019s observations of early galaxies, including MoM-z14.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can take a page from archeology and look at these ancient stars in our own galaxy like fossils from the early universe, except in astronomy we are lucky enough to have Webb seeing so far that we also have direct information about galaxies during that time. It turns out we are seeing some of the same features, like this unusual nitrogen enrichment,\u201d said Naidu.<\/p>\n With galaxy MoM-z14 existing only 280 million years after the big bang, there was not enough time for generations of stars to produce such high amounts of nitrogen in the way that astronomers would expect. One theory the researchers note is that the dense environment of the early universe resulted in supermassive stars capable of producing more nitrogen than any stars observed in the local universe.<\/p>\n The galaxy MoM-z14 also shows signs of clearing out the thick, primordial hydrogen fog of the early universe in the space around itself. One of the reasons Webb was originally built was to define the timeline for this \u201cclearing\u201d period of cosmic history, which astronomers call reionization. This is when early stars produced light of high enough energy to break through the dense hydrogen gas of the early universe and begin travelling through space, eventually making its way to Webb, and us.<\/p>\n