A scientist has warned that the James Webb Space Telescope is continuing to find galaxies that shouldn’t exist.
Researchers have warned that six of the oldest and largest galaxies seen by NASA’s Super Telescope appear larger and more mature than they should be given their place in the universe.
The new findings build on previous research in which scientists reported that even though the universe was born, galaxies like our Milky Way were mature.
Now a new research paper has appeared confirming these findings, by “stress testing” galaxies to better understand how they form.
This suggests that if scientists do not make mistakes, we may be missing some important information about the universe.
“If the masses are right, we are in uncharted territory,” said Mike Boylan-Kolchin, of the University of Texas at Austin and author of a new paper examining non-traditional galaxies. “We’re going to be asking for something very new about the formation of galaxies or modifications in cosmology. One of the most extreme possibilities is that the universe expanded more rapidly after the Big Bang than we thought, which would require new forces and particles.”
Professor Boylan-Kolchin’s paper, “ΛCDM strain test with high redshift galaxy candidates,” published in natural astronomy this week.
It is suggested that the information from JWST points to a deep dilemma for scientists. The data suggests that something is wrong with the models of dark energy and cold dark matter, or ΛCDM, that have guided cosmology for decades.
Typically, galaxies convert about 10 percent of their gas into stars. But the newly discovered galaxy had to turn almost everything into stars.
This is theoretically possible. But it was a deviation from what scientists had hoped for.
Further observations of the galaxies should clarify their ages and masses. This might suggest that his observations were wrong: that the supermassive black hole at the center is heating up the galaxy so that it appears larger than it really is, or that the black hole is actually slower than expected but appears older due to imaging problems.
But if they are confirmed, astronomers may have to change their understanding of the universe and how galaxies grow, to adapt their models to account for unusually large and mature galaxies.
