The James Webb telescope may have already discovered the most distant galaxy ever observed

A week after the first images of the James Webb Space Telescope were revealed, the most powerful ever designed, it may have already discovered a very distant galaxy dating back 13.5 billion years. Named GLASS-z13, it appears to us only about 300 million years after the Big Bang, 100 million years younger than the previous record, Rohan Naidu, center, from Harvard, AFP.

“promising”

He is the lead author of a study analyzing public data taken from James Webb’s first observations and posted online to all astronomers on the planet. One of the main tasks of this brand new telescope is to observe the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. In astronomy, looking into the distance is like going back in time. For example, sunlight takes eight minutes to reach us, so we see it as it was eight minutes ago. As far as we can see, we can feel the light that appeared billions of years ago.

Light from this galaxy was emitted 13.5 billion years ago. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed, but has been published as a “preprint” for quick access to the expert community. It has been submitted to a scientific journal for upcoming publication, Rogan Naidu said. “Astronomical Records Are Already Staggering”Thomas Surbusen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, tweeted. “Yes, I tend to clap my hands only in the face of peer-reviewed scientific results. But it is very promising! “, he added in the study. According to Rohan Naidu, another research team also concluded the same conclusions “give hope”.

The galaxy was observed by the NIRCOM instrument and found to be called A “Deep Field”, i.e. a wide image taken with a long exposure time to detect faint glow. James Webb’s specialty is working only in infrared. The light emitted by primitive materials stretches and “Shy” Along the way, it passes through this wavelength that is invisible to the human eye. To draw a picture of this galaxy, the data was therefore “translated” In the visible spectrum: then it appears as a red circle with white at its center. A faint point in the infinity of the universe.