At around 13.8 billion years old, the universe is teeming with celestial body systems. It is through astronomy that we have information about them, which make us understand a little more about the origin of the universe. being the ancient galaxies one of the main objects of study for astronomers, NASA has seen specimens that existed billions of years ago. So, check out the discovery now.
The records are new, but the galaxies are not
According to teoria do Big Bang, the universe was just a space without light, with only an ocean of quarks and gluons, a phenomenon known as primordial soup. Soon after, around 300 to 400 million years later, the first galaxies began to take shape.
Despite serving astronomy for a short time, it was thanks to James Webb that the possibility of capturing the light waves emitted by ancient galaxies could materialize.
The observed galaxies
The latest discovery captures several ancient galaxies. They even appear as the most distant bodies ever seen in space, thus becoming a historic landmark. They have peculiar characteristics, such as their reddish color, indicating the presence of space dust.
In order to identify the age of galaxies more precisely, scientists studied their respective spectral lines. Soon, it was determined that the oldest galaxy among those observed is GHZ2/GLASS-z12, whose formation took place around 367 million years after the Big Bang.
Through these data, studies on the origin of the universe will be able to be complemented with the new information obtained. Incidentally, researchers are still not happy with what they found. Their objective is to test the telescope’s capacity and increase it to go after more records like these.
How does James Webb find galaxies so far away?
While there are no time machines, James Webb works like one. When he points to long distances, it means he’s looking into the past. That’s because the observed light waves are not current, but from millions, and even billions, of years ago. In other words, the telescope observes bodies that, for the most part, no longer exist.
