The early universe contained 10 times more galaxies identical to the Milky Way than was previously believed.
This cosmological revelation is the result of one of the first investigations of photos obtained by the new James Webb Space Telescope from NASA.
Prof. Christopher Conselice of Manchester University, United Kingdom, stated that Webb could “zoom in on the early Universe.”
This gave insights regarding items in space about which “we knew they existed but did not know how or when they formed.”
Disc galaxies dominate the universe “”today’s galaxy population,” the scientist explained.
Before the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers were unable to see so far back in time.
The study, which has been published on a preprint platform, indicating that it has not yet been peer-reviewed by other experts in the field, utilized the first image released by the telescope.
This image depicts the SMACS 0723 cluster of galaxies in the foreground. This immense quantity of objects has amplified the light of background galaxies in the distant universe, making them visible for the first time. Just 600 million years after the Big Bang, some of these galaxies existed.
Webb is capturing spectacular images: “This could be the most important telescope ever” Webb, with its 6.5-meter-wide golden mirror and super-sensitive infrared detectors, is able to resolve and count the forms of galaxies.
“We anticipated seeing things that Hubble did not observe. But in this instance, we have a different perspective “Prof. Conselice will present some of his results at the Bluedot Festival at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire on Saturday, July 23.
The age of the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years, thus the photos captured by the JWST reveal the processes that generated stars and planets long before our own existence.
“These are the mechanisms we must comprehend if we are to comprehend our origins,” professed Conselice.
“This may be the most significant telescope in history,” he remarked. Since at least Galileo’s time.”
James Webb is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, with NASA taking the lead.
James Webb
“Andromeda, our nearest neighbor at a distance of 2.5 million light-years from Earth, is also a disc.
This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view.
In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger.
The brighter star in both images hasn’t yet shed its layers. It closely orbits the dimmer white dwarf, helping to distribute what it’s ejected.
Over thousands of years and before it became a white dwarf, the star periodically ejected mass – the visible shells of material. As if on repeat, it contracted, heated up – and then, unable to push out more material, pulsated. Stellar material was sent in all directions – like a rotating sprinkler – and provided the ingredients for this asymmetrical landscape.
Today, the white dwarf is heating up the gas in the inner regions – which appear blue at left and red at right. Both stars are lighting up the outer regions, shown in orange and blue, respectively.
The images look very different because NIRCam and MIRI collect different wavelengths of light. NIRCam observes near-infrared light, which is closer to the visible wavelengths our eyes detect. MIRI goes farther into the infrared, picking up mid-infrared wavelengths. The second star more clearly appears in the MIRI image, because this instrument can see the gleaming dust around it, bringing it more clearly into view.
The stars – and their layers of light – steal more attention in the NIRCam image, while dust pl
This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view.
In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger.
The brighter star in both images hasn’t yet shed its layers. It closely orbits the dimmer white dwarf, helping to distribute what it’s ejected.
Over thousands of years and before it became a white dwarf, the star periodically ejected mass – the visible shells of material. As if on repeat, it contracted, heated up – and then, unable to push out more material, pulsated. Stellar material was sent in all directions – like a rotating sprinkler – and provided the ingredients for this asymmetrical landscape.
Today, the white dwarf is heating up the gas in the inner regions – which appear blue at left and red at right. Both stars are lighting up the outer regions, shown in orange and blue, respectively.
The images look very different because NIRCam and MIRI collect different wavelengths of light. NIRCam observes near-infrared light, which is closer to the visible wavelengths our eyes detect. MIRI goes farther into the infrared, picking up mid-infrared wavelengths. The second star more clearly appears in the MIRI image, because this instrument can see the gleaming dust around it, bringing it more clearly into view.
The stars – and their layers of light – steal more attention in the NIRCam image, while dust pl
