NASA agency James Webb Space Telescope Came again with the goods. Images released by the space agency show some of the The oldest galaxies ever discovered. Galaxies feature so-called star bars, elongated bands of stars that extend from the center of galaxies to their outer disks like those seen in the Milky Way. Two of the six date back to a time when the universe was only 3.4 billion years old, a quarter of its current age.
One of the galaxies, EGS-23305, had previously been imaged by Hubble Space Telescope But the resolution wasn’t high enough for astronomers to make out its spiral shape and prominent starbar. These small details are clearly visible in the high resolution image produced by Webb. The structure of the second galaxy, EGS-24268, can also be clearly seen.
Both barred galaxies are about 11 billion years old, making them older than any previously discovered galaxy, and were found in data collected by Webb. Scientific investigation of the first publication of cosmic evolution (CERI).
Four other forbidden galaxies more than 8 billion years ago were also found in the data.
The study co-author said: “I looked at this data and said, ‘We’re dropping everything else! ” Professor Shardha Jojiof the University of Texas at Austin.
“The barely visible bars in the Hubble data have just appeared in the JWST image, showing the tremendous power of the JWST to see through the underlying structure in galaxies.”
Stellar bars play a central role in the evolution of galaxies by transporting gas from the outer regions to the center. This gas is then rapidly converted into new stars 10 to 100 times faster than the rest of the galaxy. It could also help fuel the growth of supermassive black holes that sit at the centers of galaxies.
Finding barred galaxies so early in the universe raises questions about current theories of galaxy evolution. The team now plans to test different models of galaxy evolution to explain their new findings.
“This discovery of the first bars means that models of galaxy evolution now have a new path through the bars to accelerate the production of new stars in the early epochs,” Jogee said.
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