by James Webb discovers the oldest galaxy in the universe – a 13.5 billion year old system of stars formed 300 million years after the Big Bang
- James Webb discovered a 13.5 billion year old galaxy called GN-z13
- This galaxy was formed just 300 million years after the Big Bang that took place 13.8 billion years ago
- The previous record holder, discovered by the Hubble Telescope in 2015, was the GN-z11, which dates back 400 million years after the universe was born.
NASA’s James Webb Telescope (JWST) has uncovered a 13.5 billion year old galaxy which is now the oldest universe seen by human eyes.
The galaxy, called GLASS-z13 (GN-z13), was formed just 300 million years after the Big Bang that occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
The previous record holder, discovered by the Hubble Telescope in 2015, was the GN-z11, which dates back 400 million years after the universe was born.
JWST took a look at the GN-z13 using its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, which are able to detect living things from the earliest stars and galaxies.
Scroll down for video
NASA’s James Webb Telescope (JWST) has uncovered a 13.5 billion year old galaxy that is now the oldest universe seen by human eyes. The galaxy, called GLASS-z13 (GN-z13), was formed just 300 million years after the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
While exploring the area near GN-z13, JWST also discovered GN-z11, and researchers from Harvard and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts note that both galaxies are very small, reports New Scientist.
GN-z13 is around 1600 light years in diameter and GLASS z-11 is 2300 light years.
This is compared to our own Milky Way, which is around 100,000 light-years in diameter.
The newspaper, published in arXiv, notes that both galaxies have a mass of one billion suns, and notes that this is because they were formed shortly after the Big Bang took place.
While exploring the area near GN-z13 (top), JWST also detected GN-z11 (bottom), and researchers from Harvard and the Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts note that both galaxies are very small.
The previous record holder, discovered by the Hubble Telescope in 2015, is the GN-z11 (pictured) which dates back 400 million years after the universe was born
The team suggests that this happened while the galaxies were growing and devouring stars in the region.
“These two objects are already placing new constraints on the galaxy evolution in the cosmic dawn era,” researchers shared in the newspaper.
“They indicate that the discovery of GNz11 was not just a matter of luck, but that it is probably a population of UV light sources with very high star formation efficiency that are able to compile.”
Gabriel Brammer at the Niehls Bohr Institute in Denmark, part of the GLASS team and a co-discoverer of GN-z11, told New Scientist that further analyzes will be needed to confirm the distance between the two galaxies.
“They are very convincing candidates,” he says. “We were pretty sure that JWST would see distant galaxies. But we are a little surprised at how easy it is to spot them. ‘
Brammer made headlines this week when he released an unprecedented photo taken by JWST.
The newspaper notes that both galaxies have a mass of one billion suns, and notes that this is because they were formed shortly after the Big Bang took place. Pictured are the galaxies’ locations
Gabriel Brammer, part of the GLASS team and a co-discoverer of GN-z11, said further analysis would be needed to confirm the distance between the two galaxies. Brammer made headlines this week when he released an unprecedented photo taken by JWST (photo)
The astronomer shared a stunning image of the spiral arms of the “phantom galaxy”, formally known as NGC 628 or Messier 74.
Webb took the image of NGC 628 on July 17 and sent the data back to Earth where it was stored in the Barbara Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, (MAST), which is open to the public.
Brammer’s picture caught the attention of other astronomers and space enthusiasts, who wanted to learn more about how he made the picture and what it was they were looking at.
“For a little more context, the purple hue here is actually ‘real’ in the sense that emissions from interstellar cigarette smoke (PAH molecules) make the filters used for the blue and red channels lighter compared to the green ones,” Brammer wrote. in a tweet.
THE JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a ‘time machine’ that can help uncover the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to look back at the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
The huge telescope, which has already cost more than $ 7 billion (£ 5 billion), is considered a successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The James Webb Telescope and most of the instruments have an operating temperature of about 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).
It is the world’s largest and most powerful orbital space telescope, capable of looking back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble instead of a replacement, as the two will work together for a while.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It orbits the earth at a speed of about 17,000 mph (27,300 km / h) in low earth orbit for about 340 miles in altitude.
