The James Webb telescope changed cosmology: the massive galaxies in the early universe cannot be explained by current models.
Public College – The galaxies that formed in the universe after the Big Bang must have been small. At least that’s what astrophysicists hope. But now images from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from the space organizations NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency seem to upend that understanding of the universe. A research team has discovered six massive galaxies in the early universe in images.
The research group was surprised by their discovery: “These objects are much larger than expected,” explained Joel Lega of Penn State University State College in a statement. LIGA is part of a team of researchers analyzing galaxy images. It was a special job for this in a journal alam published. “We expected to find only young galaxies at this point, but we have detected mature galaxies like ours in what is considered the dawn of the universe,” said astrophysicist Leja. communication.
The James Webb Space Telescope looks roughly at the Big Bang
The LIGA international research team discovered the galaxy some 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang – in cosmic proportions immediately after the Big Bang. Using its infrared instruments, the James Webb Space Telescope allows researchers to detect the light emitted by the oldest stars and galaxies. In this way, researchers can look back to about 13.5 billion years ago — right before the Big Bang, which according to current models occurred about 13.8 billion years ago.
The research team is still not entirely sure that they have actually found an ancient giant galaxy, as it can only be seen as a tiny red dot in the JWST images. “This is the first glimpse so far, so it’s important that we have an open mind about what we’re seeing,” said Lega. While the data suggests they are most likely galaxies, researchers also believe that some of these objects could be supermassive black holes.
Giant galaxies contradict the cosmological model
“Independently, the mass numbers we detected mean that the masses of known stars in this period of our universe are up to 100 times greater than previously thought. Even if we cut the sample in half, it’s still a pretty cool change,” said Lega. The astrophysicist’s findings “challenge what many of us consider scientifically proven.” “We informally refer to these things as ‘universe destroyers’ – and they have lived up to their name thus far.”
According to the research group, galaxies are so massive that they don’t fit in 99 percent of all cosmic models. To explain large masses, one must rewrite cosmological models or revise scientific understanding of how galaxies formed in the early universe. Until recently, cosmologists assumed that galaxies started as small clouds of stars and dust and gradually grew larger.
A very deep look into the early universe reveals amazing things
“We saw the earliest universe for the first time and had no idea what we would find,” said Lega. “It turns out we found something very unexpected that is actually a problem for science.” His colleague Ivo Lappi, lead author of the study, remembers working with the footage: “I ran analysis software and it cranked out two numbers: distance 13.1 billion light years, mass 100 billion stars, and I almost spat it out. my copy. We’ve just discovered the impossible. Very early, very large galaxy.”
One way to tell if this is a very old galaxy is to take the spectra of each object. This will allow researchers to determine their actual distances and also learn what galaxies are made of. With the help of this data, scientists can also determine how massive the galaxy really is. “Spectra will soon tell us whether these things are real or not,” explains Lega. (unpaid bill)
