- James Webb Space Telescope discovered the most distant galaxy MoM-z14 280 million years post-Big Bang
- MoM-z14 is brighter, denser, and chemically richer than expected in early universe studies
- Galaxy's light traveled over 13.5 billion years, highlighting gaps in theoretical models
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has stunned astronomers once again as it has found the most distant galaxy ever observed, named MoM-z14. According to NASA, the newly discovered galaxy existed just 280 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists say that MoM-z14 is brighter, denser, and more chemically rich than expected. The discovery offers new clues to the early universe's evolution.
"With Webb, we are able to see farther than humans ever have before, and it looks nothing like what we predicted, which is both challenging and exciting," Rohan Naidu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said as quoted by NASA.
He is also the lead author of a paper on galaxy MoM-z14 published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics, available on the arXiv preprint server.
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Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Rohan Naidu (MIT); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
"We can estimate the distance of galaxies from images, but it's really important to follow up and confirm with more detailed spectroscopy so that we know exactly what we are seeing, and when," Pascal Oesch of the University of Geneva, who is the co-principal investigator of the survey, said as quoted by NASA.
MoM-z14's light has travelled over 13.5 billion years to reach Earth, and its discovery reveals a "growing chasm" between theoretical models and actual observations of the early universe.
"There is a growing chasm between theory and observation related to the early universe, which presents compelling questions to be explored going forward," Jacob Shen, who is a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, said as quoted. He is a member of the research team.
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The galaxy's unusual features include high amounts of nitrogen, indicating rapid star formation in the early cosmos.
The JWST's observations are rewriting our understanding of the universe's dawn, showing more galaxies than predicted and challenging existing theories.
"We can take a page from archeology and look at these ancient stars in our own galaxy like fossils from the early universe, except in astronomy we are lucky enough to have Webb seeing so far that we also have direct information about galaxies during that time. It turns out we are seeing some of the same features, like this unusual nitrogen enrichment," said Naidu.
