WASHINGTON: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered the two most distant galaxies ever observed, the agency said. These galaxies are the earliest ever seen, dating back to when the universe was just 300 million years old. The farthest galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, is particularly notable for its size and brightness, which astonished experts and may provide new insights into the early universe.
JADES-GS-z14-0 shines remarkably bright and spans 1,600 light-years. Its luminosity suggests it has a mass several hundreds of millions of times that of our Sun. Researchers are puzzled by how such a “bright, massive, and large galaxy” could form in less than 300 million years.
“The size of the galaxy clearly indicates that the light is produced by numerous young stars,” said Daniel Eisenstein, a Harvard professor and chair of the astronomy department, “rather than material accreting onto a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s center, which would appear much smaller.”
This discovery implies that the universe was rapidly forming large, massive galaxies even in its infancy. “It is stunning that the universe can create such a galaxy in only 300 million years,” remarked Stefano Carniani of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, a lead author of the study.
The discovery is a significant milestone in studying the early universe, researchers said. It was made possible by the advanced technology of the Webb telescope, which can detect light stretched over such vast distances. Scientists are hopeful that more such distant galaxies will be found, some potentially even further away.
“This extraordinary object shows that galaxy formation in the early universe was very rapid and intense,” stated Ben Johnson from Harvard. “And JWST will enable us to find more of these galaxies, perhaps from an even earlier time. It is a fantastic opportunity to study the origins of galaxies.”
