The first galaxies may have formed earlier than astronomers thought until today, according to preliminary images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, which in a few months changed the scientific understanding of the universe.
“Somehow, the universe managed to form galaxies faster and earlier than we thought,” Thomas True, professor of astronomy at UCLA University, said during a press conference on Thursday.
One of James Webb’s main goals is to study the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago. The space telescope began operating five months ago.
Astrophysicist Cihan Kartaltepe noted that scientists believed that observing galaxies “will take time” based on developed cosmological models.
However, “James Webb” monitored, in just a few months, a large number of new galaxies that formed early, one of which existed only 350 million years after the Big Bang, fifty million years less than the previous record.
“It is surprising that there are so many galaxies that formed so early,” Cihan Kartaltepe said. In addition to their many numbers, scientists were amazed by their brilliance.
“We quickly concluded that they are huge, which raises a real mystery: How did these galaxies manage to form so many stars in such a short period of time?” said Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
And in order for galaxies to be accomplished, he added, “they must have begun to form, perhaps only 100 million years after the Big Bang.”
An alternative hypothesis is that these galaxies in fact contain what is called a third star population, very different from the stars we know. These extraordinarily bright first stars have hitherto been merely theoretical without being observed.
Thanks to its amazing capabilities, the James Webb Telescope was able to reveal aspects of some of these galaxies.
“Our team was surprised by the telescope’s ability to measure the shape of these first galaxies,” said Erika Nelson of the University of Colorado, in statements made by the US Space Agency (NASA). “.
In the future, it is assumed that the exact distance of these galaxies, one of which broke the record, will be confirmed through spectral analyzes conducted by James Webb.
Thanks to James Webb, we are on track to realize the dream of understanding early galaxies, Illingworth said.
(AFP)