The James Webb Space Telescope has made a groundbreaking discovery.
It has located the most distant galaxy ever observed, approximately 290 million years after a significant cosmic event. This remarkable finding was announced by the European Space Agency in a statement released on Thursday.
The newly discovered galaxy was detected following two years of extensive observation during the Cosmic Dawn era, just a few million years after the Big Bang, when the earliest galaxies formed, as outlined in the statement.
This discovery sheds light on the evolution of gas, stars, and black holes during the universe’s infancy, as stated in the release.
The press release further detailed the discovery process, explaining that an international team of astronomers utilized the James Webb Telescope to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program in October 2023 and January 2024.
Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), scientists have successfully acquired the spectrum of a galaxy, setting a new record by observing it a mere two hundred and ninety million years after the big bang. This remarkable achievement corresponds to a redshift of approximately 14, indicating the extent to which the galaxy’s light has been stretched by the universe’s expansion.
Coinciding with this breakthrough, the James Webb Telescope recently captured captivating glimpses of the Orion Nebula, situated approximately 1,500 light-years away from Earth.
The telescope’s latest images vividly depict Messier 42 (M42), a cloud of gas and dust known as a stellar nursery, where new stars are born.
These stunning visuals, rendered in vibrant colors, offer invaluable insights into the processes of star formation within our cosmic neighborhood, showcasing the telescope’s prowess in unraveling the mysteries of the universe.
