• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Earliest galaxy ever discovered by astronomers

Home> Technology

Published 16:57 8 Apr 2023 GMT+1

Earliest galaxy ever discovered by astronomers

The pictures are blowing people's minds

Ella Scott

Ella Scott

Astronomers have confirmed they have found four galaxies that were formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

By utilising the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), two teams of astronomers have identified a galaxy that they believe formed over 320 million years after the Big Bang.

The 80-strong team from 10 countries, known as the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), has dubbed the oldest galaxy JADES-GS-Z13-0.

The astronomical observation took place over 10 days where the teams scanned the deep-field region of space and spotted four ancient galaxies in total.

Advert

They believe that the intense redshift surrounding them indicates that all four were created between 320 million to 350 million years after the Big Bang.

Snapshot of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field where 10,000 galaxies reside.
NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team

These archaic galaxies are thought to have been created when the intergalactic medium was just made up of neutral hydrogen. It is thought that they would have burst into existence when the universe was only 2% of its current age.

According to Brent Robertson, an astronomer at UC-Santa Cruz, JWST has been specifically used to capture this early galaxy because it is a ‘bigger telescope’ and has a ‘larger mirror’ than the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

The astronomer told Inverse that this “Makes it more sensitive, [than the HST] specially designed in terms of the camera and the coatings of the mirror and the optics to work well in the infrared.”

Advert

“To find these galaxies in such stunningly beautiful images is a special experience,” Roberston said in a statement released by the European Space Agency. “We can be absolutely confident of their fantastic distances.”

About the galaxies astronomer Emma Curtis-Lake said, “It was crucial to prove that these galaxies do, indeed, inhabit the early universe.’

The James Webb Space Telescope resides 1 million miles from Earth.
NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez

“Seeing the spectrum revealed as we hoped, confirming these galaxies as being at the true edge of our view… is a tremendously exciting achievement for the mission,” she continued.

Advert

While these newly-unveiled galaxies are the oldest ones found to date, that doesn’t mean JADES or other astronomer groups are stopping with this discovery.

“So many questions about galaxies have been waiting for the transformative opportunity of Webb,” says astronomer Sandro Tacchella. “We’re thrilled to be able to play a part in telling this story.”

Time report that JADES has more observing time booked with the JWST. They also apparently intend to continue searching the Hubble Ultra Deep Field for older galaxies than the ones they have just discovered.

Featured Image Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo/Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: Space, Technology

Ella Scott
Ella Scott

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
3 days ago
4 days ago
  • a day ago

    Microsoft boss sparks outrage with shocking advice to employees who are being fired because of AI

    Matt Turnbull has since deleted the controversial post

    Technology
  • 2 days ago

    Man who bought physical Bitcoin bar 13 years ago finally sells it for unbelievable amount

    He paid $500 for the bar back in 2012

    Technology
  • 3 days ago

    Asteroid worth $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 that NASA is capturing could have a devastating impact

    NASA is hoping to capture the highly valuable asteroid in 2029

    Technology
  • 4 days ago

    People are only just realizing what the 'G' stands for in 5G and it's not what you might think

    5G is used by over 1.5 billion every day, but what does the 'G' actually stand for?

    Technology
  • Scientists claim to have discovered 'cracks in the universe' after taking closer look at bizarre galaxy
  • Astronomers discover source of mysterious radio signals from space after two years of searching
  • How NASA will make closest ever approach to the sun in historic 3,800,000 mile mission
  • Astronomers have found the most distant galaxy ever observed