Astronomers say a small red smudge captured in the distant background of the first ‘deep field’ image of the James Webb Space Telescope could change our understanding of the early universe.
The blurred point is an unnamed ancient galaxy 13.1 billion years old – only hundreds of millions of years younger than the universe’s birth. Of all the galaxies captured in the image, it is the furthest from Earth.
Captured in the deepest and most accurate infrared image of the distant universe ever recorded, it was released to the world as part of the observatory’s first set of $10 billion (£7.4 million) full-color images last week.
When researchers extend the light of an individual galaxy into a spectrum, they can learn about the chemical composition, temperature, and density of the galaxy’s ionized gas.
For example, the spectrum of this galaxy will reveal the properties of its gas, which will indicate how its stars form and how much dust it contains.
Such information has never been discovered before in such a quality.
Hidden secrets: A tiny red smudge captured in the distant background of the first ‘deep field’ image of the James Webb Space Telescope could help unlock the chemistry of the early universe
When researchers extend the light of an individual galaxy into a spectrum (pictured), they can learn about the galaxy’s chemical composition, temperature, and density of ionized gas.
Far Away: Taken in the deepest infrared image of the distant universe ever recorded (pictured) and released to the world last week as part of Webb’s first images
The spectrum itself was produced by Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, which uses small windows to isolate and analyze light from objects in the telescope’s field of view.
This meant that only the light of the ancient galaxy’s star was allowed to pass through revealing its chemical signatures, while other light from bright nearby objects was blocked.
Among the various elements within the galaxy was a fingerprint of glowing oxygen gas, which is known as the emission line.
NIRSpec team member Andrew Bunker, from the University of Oxford, said experts had hoped to observe this streak in distant galaxies but expected they would have to search for “dozens or hundreds” or targets before they could be detected.
I don’t think we really dreamed that he would be there in our first major publicity stunt. This is really, really unbelievable.” new world.
The reason the oxygen emission line is so important is that astronomers use it to calibrate their measurements of Galactic structures.
If this can be compared to other galactic light emission lines, it is possible to decipher how many chemicals are in the galaxy, based on chemical fingerprints in the spectrum.
This has been done before for nearby galaxies but not for galaxies as far away as the red stain in the Webb Deep Field.
When astronomers start analyzing Webb’s data, we’ll learn an incredible amount about galaxies that have existed throughout cosmic time — and how they compare to the beautiful spiral and elliptical galaxies in the nearby universe.
More spectra like this will allow scientists to explore how the proportion of elements heavier than helium in distant galaxies has changed over time.
“It gives you data points on this evolution,” Emma Chapman, an astrophysicist at the University of Nottingham, told New Scientist.
The spectrum itself was produced by Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, which uses small windows to isolate and analyze light from objects in the telescope’s field of view.
Infrared capabilities allow Webb to “see past time” of the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago. Light waves move very fast, about 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second, every second. The farther away an object is, the more we look back in time. This is due to the time it takes for light to travel from the body to us
So you can start to think about how quickly the first stars die and pollute the gas [to] He created the second generation of stars that make up this galaxy.
Last week, Webb’s dazzling and unprecedented images of a “stellar nursery,” a dying star covered in dust and a “cosmic dance” among an array of galaxies were revealed to the world for the first time.
It put an end to months of frantic waiting and anticipation as the first batch of a treasure trove of images was addressed that would culminate in our first look at the dawn of the universe.
Webb’s infrared capabilities mean he can “see past time” within only 100-200 million years from the Big Bang, allowing him to take pictures of the first stars to shine in the universe more than 13.5 billion years ago.
Her first images of nebulae, exoplanets and galactic clusters sparked huge celebration in the scientific world, on what was being hailed as a “Great Day for Humanity”.
Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the masses, ages, history and composition of galaxies as Webb seeks to explore the oldest galaxies in the universe.
James Webb Telescope
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that could help unlock the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to look at the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
The huge telescope, which has already cost more than $7 billion (£5 billion), is the successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have a temperature of about 40 K – about minus 387 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 233 degrees Celsius).
It is the largest and most powerful orbiting space telescope in the world, capable of looking back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will be working alongside each other for a while.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It orbits the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour (27,300 kilometers per hour) in low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 340 miles.
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