Everywhere we look, our universe is full of luminous matter.
The “red and dead” galaxy NGC 1277 is found within the Perseus Cluster. While other galaxies contain a mixture of red and blue stars, this galaxy has not formed new stars in about 10 billion years. In the foreground, closer objects, such as stars, as well as distant galaxies, are all everywhere in this image.
Galaxies, supported by stars, are found scattered throughout the universe.
The galaxies that make up the Pandora cluster, Abell 2744, are contained within the cluster’s three separate components that are easily recognizable visually, while remaining background sources are scattered throughout the universe, including many of the first billion years of cosmic history. This field of view is now known to contain many of the oldest galaxies ever discovered, as well as the youngest primitive cluster of galaxies yet discovered: just 650 million years after the Big Bang.
Farther away, they are bluer, smaller, and less developed.
Galaxies similar to the present-day Milky Way abound, but younger galaxies that resemble the Milky Way are inherently smaller, bluer, messier, and generally richer in gas than the galaxies we see today. For the first galaxies ever, this effect reaches an extreme. As far as we have seen before, galaxies obey these rules.
Even within the limits of our tools, galaxies still abound.
This small portion of the JADES survey area, taken with JWST’s NIRCam instrument, shows relatively nearby galaxies in detail, galaxies at intermediate distances that appear clustered together, and even very distant galaxies that may be interacting or forming stars, despite their faint nature and reddish appearance. . We’ve only just begun to explore the full richness of the universe with the James Webb Space Telescope.
There is no deeper view than JADES: JWST Advanced Extragalactic Deep Survey.
This image shows the JWST’s Advanced Galactic Deep Extraterrestrial Survey (JADES) study area. This region includes and contains the Hubble Deep Field Maximum and reveals new galaxies at record distances that Hubble could not see. The colors in JWST images are not “real colors” but are assigned based on a variety of choices. This image, released in December of 2022, has since been enhanced by subsequent observations within the same region of space, with spectroscopic observations required to determine the distance to these galaxies.
With the new spectroscopic data, The cosmic distance record has fallen again.
This image shows the spectrum, or intensity as a function of wavelength, of the distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 as obtained using JWST’s NIRSpec instrument. The Lyman fraction tells us that the galaxy is at a redshift of z = 14.32, which corresponds to the age of the universe at that time of only 285 million years.
gds-gs-z14-0 is Now it is the most distant galaxy ever found: Only 285 million years after the Big Bang.
If you plot the cosmic distance record over time, it’s clear that there have been several big jumps: in the 1960s, in the late 1990s, and now again in the 1920s in the era of the James Webb Space Telescope. Although there are still uncertainties in cosmology, this record-breaking new galaxy should appear between 270 and 305 million years after the Big Bang.
Here are 5 big lessons We have already learned From his discovery.
Appearing in the context of the JWST JADES field, the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 is completely unremarkable, but nonetheless it has just broken the cosmic distance record once again, becoming the first galaxy ever discovered when the universe was less than 300 million years old. : Only 2.1% of his current age.
1.) Not all early galaxies are compact.
Among distant galaxies, GN-z11 and GHZ2 are among the brightest, yet they are still remarkably compact. JADES-GS-z14-1 is more typical: fainter but still very compact, while JADES-GS-z14-0 is more puzzling: bright and extended, suggesting a physical size of up to 1,700 light-years at an incredible distance.
Although (2nd place) JADES-GS-z14-1 looks like a point, it is A brother farther away It actually extends across 1,700 light-years.
Galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0, along with an overlapping, unrelated galaxy that happens to lie on the exact same line of sight. Their extended nature can be clearly seen even in the zoomed-in NIRCam image of the two galaxies.
2.) Not all distant galaxy candidates are correct.
Before the James Webb Space Telescope, there were about 40 very distant galaxy candidates, primarily from Hubble observations. Early JWST results revealed many very distant candidate galaxies, but now 717 of them have been found in JADES’s field of view of just 125 square minutes. The entire night sky is a million times larger, suggesting that there are at least hundreds of millions of these very distant galaxies to be found. While some will survive spectroscopic follow-up, others will not. There is still a lot of science to be done.
Spectroscopic analysis reveals that some very distant galaxies are simply dusty and intrinsically red.
While JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1 (in red) turn out to be real, very distant galaxies, many of the candidate galaxies (in blue) will turn out to be imposters at smaller distances. Manna: Red and/or dusty in essence. The blue dot with the black circle around it was also examined by NIRSpec, which showed that it is not a very distant galaxy at all.
3.) Some galaxies are “hidden” by closer intruders.
JADES-GS-z14-0, in the upper inner square, is found behind (and to the right of) a closer, brighter, bluer galaxy. It was not possible to determine the nature of the distant object except through the power of spectroscopy with amazing accuracy, capable of separating the two sources.
JADES-GS-z14-0 was found only by separating this galaxy from a closer galaxy on the same line of sight.
The highly advanced NIRSpec instrument on board JWST can take in light from a very small region of space. By aiming the telescope correctly, the desired sources, JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1 in this case, can be obtained separately even from very close and partially overlapping sources.
4.) This new record holder is remarkably bright and unexpected.
By fitting the spectra of the three most distant galaxies ever discovered onto the same graph, JADES-GS-z13-0 (the previous record holder), JADES-GS-z14-0 (the current record holder), and JADES-GS- z14 -1 (newly discovered with JADES-GS-z14-0), we can compare the brightness of these three galaxies. The most distant one is also the brightest by a factor of 4 or 5, posing a puzzle to astronomers.
Five times brighter From the previous record holder (JADES-GS-z13-0), JADES-GS-z14-0 is It’s even shockingly visible to Merry’s eyes.
This spread of four panels shows four different views of the galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 with MIRI optical data. The fact that this galaxy has so much emission at 7.7 microns suggests that neutral and heated hydrogen (Balmer beta) and doubly ionized oxygen are present in large quantities.
5.) But this galaxy is extremely dust-poor.
While galaxies found at later times typically exhibit large amounts of dust, consistent with theories of dust production from supernova events, these two new record-breaking galaxies show evidence that dust is produced only by AGB stars, not Through supernovae. This is a mysterious surprise in the new data.
It is as if no supernovae occurred inside it.
The central region of the SN 1987A supernova remnant, as first seen by JWST’s NIRCam instrument in 2023. The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed gaseous and dusty features in the interior of the remnant in greater detail than any previous observatory, such as the core collapse of supernovas They are amazing sites for producing cosmic dust.
With JWST, the past of our universe He stays focused.
Even from this zoomed-in view of the JADES field, it is very difficult to spot the most distant galaxy ever discovered, JADES-GS-z14-0, with the naked eye. This animation shows its location with a green circle: overlapping a brighter, bluer, closer galaxy.
Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story with pictures, visuals, and no more than 200 words.
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