James Webb Space Telescope uncovers 300 mysteriously luminous objects. Are they galaxies or something else?
Hundreds of unexpected objects were discovered throughout the distant universe, suggesting that the cosmos was much more active during its stammerings than astronomers did not believe it in the past.
Using deep field images of the James Webb of NASA space telescope (JWST), researchers from the University of Missouri identified 300 unusually brilliant objects in the early universe. Although they can be galaxies, astronomers do not yet know what they are sure. Galaxies forming so shortly after the Big Bang should be weak, limited by the rhythm to which they could form stars. However, these candidates shine much brighter than the current models of the training of the first galaxies do not predict it.
“If even some of these objects prove to be what we think to be, our discovery could question the current ideas on the way in which the galaxies were formed in the start of the universe-the period when the first stars and galaxies began to take shape,” said Haojing Yan, co-author of the study, in a university statement.
To discover these objects, the team applied a method called the “Dropout” technique, which detects objects that appear in redest wavelengths but disappear in more blue and shorter images. This indicates that objects are extremely distant, showing the universe because it was more than 13 billion years.
To estimate the distances, the team analyzed the brightness of the objects on several wavelengths to deduce the lag towards red, age and mass. The powerful near JWST infrared camera and the mid-infrared instrument are designed to detect the light from the expanses most distant from space, which makes them ideal for studying the early universe.
“While the light of these first galaxies moves in space, it extends into longer wavelengths – going from visible light in the infrared,” Yan said in the press release. “This stretch, called red time, helps us to determine how far these galaxies are high. The higher the red to the red, the closer the galaxy is the beginning of the universe.”
Then, the researchers hope to use targeted spectroscopic observations, focusing on the brightest sources. Confirm the newly found objects as real early galaxies would refine our current understanding of the speed with which the first cosmic structures were formed and evolved – and would add to the growing list of transformative discoveries made by the JWST since it began to observe the cosmos in 2022.
The results were published on June 27 in the astrophysical journal.
