James Webb Space Telescope : Detecting The Most Distant Known Galaxy
The James Webb Space Telescope has smashed its own record for detecting the most distant known galaxy.
- The galaxy called JADES-GS-z14-0, is revealed as it was just 290m years after the big bang, at the dawn of the universe.
- The telescope’s previous record holder was a galaxy seen at 325m years after the big bang, which happened nearly 14bn years ago.
- The newly observed galaxy is much brighter than expected, suggesting that the first generation of stars were either more luminous or formed much more rapidly than conventional cosmological theories have predicted.
- The impressive size and brightness of JADES-GS-z14-0 is likely being fueled by young and actively forming stars, rather than a supermassive black hole.
- In JADES-GS-z14-0, Webb can see a significant amount of oxygen, which tells researchers the galaxy is already quite mature.
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST):
- It was launched in 2021 as a joint endeavour of the USA, European and Canadian space agencies.
- It is a large infrared telescope with an approximately 6.5 meter primary mirror.
- It does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, it orbits the Sun 5 million kilometers away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
