Posted on 07/21/2022 9:25:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
The GLASS-z13 galaxy imaged by JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI/AFP)
Just a week after its first images were shown to the world, the James Webb Space Telescope may have found a galaxy that existed 13.5 billion years ago, a scientist who analyzed the data said Wednesday.
Known as GLASS-z13, the galaxy dates back to 300 million years after the Big Bang, about 100 million years earlier than anything previously identified, Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics told AFP.
"We're potentially looking at the most distant starlight that anyone has ever seen," he said.
The more distant objects are from us, the longer it takes for their light to reach us, and so to gaze back into the distant universe is to see into the deep past.
🚨 JWST has potentially smashed records, spotting a galaxy which existed when the universe was a mere 300 million years old! The light from GLASS-z13 took 13.4 billion years to hit us, but the distance between us is now 33 billion light years due to the expansion of the universe! pic.twitter.com/5AcOBwHuO1
— Dr. James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) July 20, 2022 Though GLASS-z13 existed in the earliest era of the Universe, its exact age remains unknown as it could have formed any time within the first 300 million years.
GLASS-z13 was spotted in so-called "early release" data from the orbiting observatory's main infrared imager, called NIRcam – but the discovery was not revealed in the first image set published by NASA last week.
When translated from infrared into the visible spectrum, the galaxy appears as a blob of red with white in its center, as part of a wider image of the distant cosmos called a "deep field".
Naidu and colleagues – a team totaling 25 astronomers from across the world – have submitted their findings to a scientific journal.
For now, the research is posted on a preprint server, so it comes with the caveat that it has yet to be peer-reviewed – but it has already set the global astronomy community abuzz.
"Astronomy records are crumbling already, and more are shaky," tweeted NASA's chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen.
"Yes, I tend to only cheer once science results clear peer review. But, this looks very promising," he added.
Naidu said another team of astronomers led by Marco Castellano that worked on the same data has achieved similar conclusions, "so that gives us confidence".
'Work to be done' One of the great promises of Webb is its ability to find the earliest galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.
Because these are so distant from Earth, by the time their light reaches us, it has been stretched by the expansion of the Universe and shifted to the infrared region of the light spectrum, which Webb is equipped to detect with unprecedented clarity.
Naidu and colleagues combed through this infrared data of the distant Universe, searching for a telltale signature of extremely distant galaxies.
Below a particular threshold of infrared wavelength, all photons – packets of energy – are absorbed by the neutral hydrogen of the Universe that lies between the object and the observer.
By using data collected through different infrared filters pointed at the same region of space, they were able to detect where these drop-offs in photons occurred, from which they inferred the presence of these most distant galaxies.
"We searched all the early data for galaxies with this very striking signature, and these were the two systems that had by far the most compelling signature," said Naidu.
One of these is GLASS-z13, while the other, not as ancient, is GLASS-z11.
"There's strong evidence, but there's still work to be done," said Naidu.
In particular, the team wants to ask Webb's managers for telescope time to carry out spectroscopy – an analysis of light that reveals detailed properties – to measure its precise distance.
"Right now, our guess for the distance is based on what we don't see – it would be great to have an answer for what we do see," said Naidu.
Already, however, the team have detected surprising properties.
For instance, the galaxy is the mass of a billion Suns, which is "potentially very surprising, and that is something we don't really understand" given how soon after the Big Bang it formed, Naidu said.
Launched last December and fully operational since last week, Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever built, with astronomers confident it will herald a new era of discovery.
Something that eluded and continues to elude my consciousness is the coordinate system(s) of space including time and curvature and does each have its X Y Z Z1 Z2 ? Can only seem to find justification for X Y and Z yet if straight lines in space are an illusion the coordinates quickly call for expansion ?
Evaporated?
To where?
And what?
Water evaporates, but it’s still water, just a different form..................................
I think I read somewhere long ago that the location of the BB was in the direction of Sagittarius.....IIRC...............
It keeps them out of politics......................
Stars that have ONLY Hydrogen, Helium and exceedingly small amounts of Lithium are designated as "Population III" Stars and have been theorized only as being a required step between the 'Big Bang' and the start of nucleosynthesis where the heavier elements get created by the extreme conditions in the gravity collapse of a dying star.
A 4D galaxy, no less.
Like Esther, Lone Starr turned out to have a royal lineage.
The Messianic star prophecy was in the Torah reading for 17th of Tammuz (last Saturday, July 16th), which was the birthday of America:
17 Tammuz 5536 = July 4th, 1776.
I see it, but not now; I behold it, but not soon. A star has gone forth from Jacob, and a staff will arise from Israel...
Makes sense if the subject is a star, in a galaxy far far away. What we see in real-time is ancient history:
“The light from GLASS-z13 took 13.4 billion years to hit us, but the distance between us is now 33 billion light years due to the expansion of the universe!”
The analog to the beginning of the revelation of all knowledge (the Messianic Light) is the JWST lone star alignment of the 18 “chai” mirrors into one clear image.
The surprise will be epic, though, because who is actually paying attention?
Easier to see distant stars than to find intelligent life on earth.
"Dark Matter". I mean, "A wormhole to the primordial foam". I mean, "Imagination".
Another good point. It’s been a long day so far, but later tonight I’m going to reflect on your point about coordinates in curved space. It will probably be fruitless, but it’s a good and fun way to make the craziness of the day fade into the background.
Astro mechanics can indicate the future position of stars based on the math. If they can predict where they are going, they can also calculate where they came from.
It’s not really rocket science, although it might be a prerequisite.
It’s as if we’ve taken one picture of humans across time. Some of the individuals in the picture are images of them as they existed long ago, while some are pictures of humans as they exist now. Do not think these pictures are pics of the universe as it exists now.
Wouldn’t the old galaxy have a long whispy beard of stars and gas?
Another *jar*ring performance.
I don’t think there is an end
Gods sandbox or canvas
Who knows
I will say this and I know this is anathema to the quote scientists here but I read astronomy too
I even have the Dummies book by the potty
Rare is an occurrence like our own solar system and planetary paradigm in the known universe surmised by radio telescopes out in the blackness
Very rare
Just saying
Carbon based life as we know it
Which is limited in scope admittedly
You made me think of The Truman Show
What I find most fascinating besides black hole matter weight is how old what we see way out is
We are seeing it when it was young..........................
All that needs answered then is “Where was the beginning point ?”
At best a guess and too much void to begin a summation of origination (imho)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.