Webb telescope discovers the most distant galaxy known
The galactic light – unusually bright according to NASA – took 13.5 billion years to reach Earth. This puts the Big Bang theory into question.
The galaxy has been named JADES-GS-z14-0. Web's photo shows them in infrared light.
Image: NASA/ESA/CSA (AFP)
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered the most distant galaxy known to date. The galaxy, called JADES-GS-z14-0, existed about 290 million years after the Big Bang.
NASA said on Thursday that the galaxy has properties that have consequences for understanding the early universe.
Co-discoverers Stefano Cargnani and Kevin Heinlein explained that JADES-GS-z14-0 is not the type of galaxy predicted by theoretical models and computer simulations for the early universe. They were “excited by the extraordinary diversity of galaxies that existed at the cosmic dawn.”
The Webb telescope does not orbit around the Earth, but around the Sun. Its mirror, shown here being assembled in Maryland, is more than six and a half meters in diameter.
Image: NASA (Keystone)
In astronomy, looking into the distance also means traveling into the past. For example, sunlight takes eight minutes to reach Earth, so people see the sun as it was eight minutes ago. If you look very far, you can see things as they looked billions of years ago. The James Webb Telescope also detects infrared light that is invisible to the human eye.
NASA: Exceptionally bright
Light from the newly discovered galaxy took more than 13.5 billion years to reach Earth, and the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago. According to NASA, the galaxy is “exceptionally bright for its distance.” It is estimated that its mass is several hundred million times the mass of the Sun.
The resolution of the Webb telescope provides unprecedented sharp images: the Penta-Stefan galaxy cluster in the Pegasus constellation, one of the first published images taken with Webb.
Image: NASA/ESA/CSA (Keystone)
According to the researchers, this discovery raises the question of “how nature could have created such a bright, massive and large galaxy in less than 300 million years.”
The high-tech observatory, which was also built with German participation, was launched into space in December 2021 after decades of preparation. It is now more than one and a half million kilometers from Earth. Explores the early days of the universe.
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