Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, M. In the background image blue represents light at 1.15 microns (115W), green is 2.0 microns (200W), and red is 4.44 microns (444W). These galaxies date back to less than 400 million years after the big bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age. Four of the galaxies studied are particularly special, as they were revealed to be at an unprecedentedly early epoch. Webb’s NIRSpec instrument then yielded a precise measurement of each galaxy’s redshift (shown at right). From these images (shown at left), the team searched for faint galaxies that are visible in the infrared but whose spectra abruptly cut off at a critical wavelength known as the Lyman break. Using Webb’s NIRCam instrument, scientists observed the field in nine different infrared wavelength ranges. Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field. “Seeing the spectrum revealed as we hoped, confirming these galaxies as being at the true edge of our view, some further away than Hubble could see! It is a tremendously exciting achievement for the mission.” The Webb Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) focused on the area in and around the It’s very possible for closer galaxies to masquerade as very distant galaxies,” said astronomer and co-author Emma Curtis-Lake from the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. “It was crucial to prove that these galaxies do, indeed, inhabit the early universe. Now, these targets have been confirmed by obtaining spectroscopic observations, revealing characteristic and distinctive patterns in the fingerprints of light coming from these incredibly faint galaxies. The light from these galaxies has taken more than 13.4 billion years to reach us, as these galaxies date back to less than 400 million years after the big bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age.Įarlier data from Webb had provided candidates for such infant galaxies. Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.Īn international team of astronomers has used data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to report the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date.
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