Navigation
Search
|
James Webb Space Telescope Discovers the Earliest Galaxy Ever Seen
Wednesday June 4, 2025. 09:00 AM , from Slashdot
![]() The researchers were able to determine that MoM z14 is around 50 times smaller than the Milky Way. The team also measured emission lines from the galaxy, indicating the presence of elements like nitrogen and carbon. 'The emission lines are unusual; it indicates that the galaxy is very young, with a rapidly increasing rate of forming new stars,' van Dokkum said. 'There are also indications that there is not much neutral hydrogen gas surrounding the galaxy, which would be surprising: the very early universe is expected to be filled with neutral hydrogen. 'That needs even better spectra and more galaxies, to investigate more fully.' The presence of carbon and nitrogen in MoM z14 indicates that there are earlier galaxies to be discovered than this 13.52 billion-year-old example. That is because the very earliest galaxies in the universe and their stars were filled with the simplest elements in the cosmos, hydrogen and helium. Later galaxies would be populated by these heavier elements, which astronomers somewhat confusingly call 'metal,' as their stars forged them and then dispersed them in supernova explosions. The research has been published on arXiv. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/04/0231211/james-webb-space-telescope-discovers-the-earlies...
Related News |
25 sources
Current Date
Jun, Fri 6 - 21:10 CEST
|