NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled a stunning 3D visualization featuring approximately 5,000 galaxies, including Maisie’s Galaxy, one of the earliest galaxies to form after the Big Bang. This groundbreaking observation showcases the advanced imaging capabilities of the Webb telescope, allowing researchers to delve into previously unseen parts of the universe and explore new questions about star formation in these ancient galaxies.
The Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach has released a mesmerizing scientific visualization of data from the CEERS (Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science) Survey, highlighting Webb’s exploration of the region known as the Extended Groth Strip. This visualization offers a glimpse of numerous galaxies that have never been observed before. It presents a vast array of galaxies spanning the universe, culminating in the distant Maisie’s Galaxy, which is located a staggering 13.4 billion light-years away from Earth.
The 3D visualization portrays around 5,000 galaxies within a small portion of the CEERS Survey, which collected data from the Extended Groth Strip. As the camera zooms away from our perspective, each second represents a journey of 200 million light-years into the dataset, and a glimpse 200 million years further into the past. The appearance of the galaxies changes, reflecting the fact that more distant objects are observed at earlier stages in the universe’s history when galaxies were still in their nascent stages. The video concludes with Maisie’s Galaxy, which came into existence a mere 390 million years after the Big Bang, approximately 13.4 billion years ago.
The video, titled “New 3D Visualization Highlights 5,000 Galaxies Revealed by Webb Space Telescope,” showcases the monumental achievement of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It takes viewers on a mesmerizing journey past thousands of galaxies, starting with those closer to us and ending with less-developed galaxies in the farthest reaches of the universe, including one that Webb has never observed before.
The highlighted area in the visualization represents a small section of the Extended Groth Strip, which is situated between the Ursa Major and Boötes constellations. This region was initially observed by the Hubble Space Telescope from 2004 to 2005 and contains approximately 100,000 galaxies. However, the visualization focuses on roughly 5,000 galaxies, with the initial scenes depicting the nearest and more complex galaxies located within a few billion light-years from Earth. As the visualization progresses, showcasing galaxies farther away, it provides a glimpse into different stages of the universe’s evolution and history.
Maisie’s Galaxy, the farthest galaxy in the visualization, is of particular interest to astronomers. It emerged approximately 390 million years after the Big Bang, making it one of the earliest and most distant galaxies discovered by Webb. Maisie’s Galaxy is an exemplar of the early galaxies only visible to Webb due to its ability to capture the infrared light emitted by these ancient galaxies, which has been shifted by the expansion of the universe.
Rebecca Larson, one of the survey’s investigators from the Rochester Institute of Technology, expressed the significance of Webb’s discoveries, stating, “This observatory just opens up this entire period of time for us to study. We couldn’t study galaxies like Maisie’s before because we couldn’t see them. Now, not only are we able to find them in our images, we’re able to find out what they’re made of and if they differ from the galaxies that we see close by.”
Steven Finkelstein, the principal investigator of the CEERS program from the University of Texas at Austin, commented on the astonishing number of galaxies observed, saying, “This observation exceeded our expectations. The sheer number of galaxies that we’re finding in the early universe is at the upper end of all predictions.” Webb’s ability to conduct such surveys provides crucial references for astronomers in future observations.
The visualization not only demonstrates Webb’s remarkable observational capabilities but also builds on the accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope. In several instances, Hubble’s observations, combined with Webb’s data from the CEERS Survey, allowed researchers to differentiate between faraway galaxies of interest from nearby galaxies obscured by dust, whose visible light is hindered.
With these groundbreaking observations, the next objective for researchers is to unravel the mysteries surrounding star formation in these early galaxies. Finkelstein pondered on the unique characteristics of these galaxies, stating, “We’re used to thinking of galaxies as smoothly growing. But maybe these stars are forming like firecrackers. Are these galaxies forming more stars than expected? Are the stars they’re making more massive than we expect? These data have given us the information to ask these questions. Now, we need more data to get those answers.”
The James Webb Space Telescope, renowned as the world’s premier space science observatory, is revolutionizing our understanding of the universe. It is unravelling mysteries within our solar system, exploring distant worlds around other stars, and shedding light on the enigmatic structures and origins of our universe. Led by NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency, the Webb telescope represents an international effort at the forefront of space exploration and scientific discovery.