James Webb Telescope May Have Found 'Impossible' Galaxies

 

The James Webb Telescope may have revealed six massive galaxies from the early universe, which challenge what is known about the formation and evolution of the universe. Candidate galaxies were identified in the observatory's first dataset, and appear to be huge and old stars. They were observed when the universe was only 3% of its current age, about 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang

 The detections are a result of the capabilities of the telescope's instruments, which are sensitive to infrared light and can identify the light emitted by the oldest stars and galaxies. The data show that, in addition to being much more massive than expected, they are at a very advanced evolutionary stage compared to what is understood about the characteristics of objects from the early universe .

Joel Leja, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States, who has modeled the light of galaxies, notes that the mass in them means that the known mass of stars in that period of the universe is up to 100 times greater than previously thought. "Even if we cut the sample in half, this is still a surprising change," he sai

d.

 He explains that the galaxies discovered by the researchers are so massive that they conflict with 99% of models in cosmology, the study of the origin of the observable universe and its structures. To account for such a large amount of mass would require changing models or revising scientific understanding of the formation of galaxies in the early universe.

Leja adds that these two scenarios require a significant shift in understanding how the universe came to be what it is. “We found something so unexpected that it creates problems for science and puts our whole understanding of the formation of primordial galaxies at stake ,” he said. However, he points out that this is the first time that such distant and ancient objects have been observed, so it is necessary to better investigate what they are before a possible theoretical revision.

"Although the data indicate that they are probably galaxies, I think there is a real possibility that some of these objects turn out to be dimmed supermassive black holes ," he suggested. The way to confirm the findings and resolve doubts about the nature of the objects is through observations of the spectrum of galaxies.

Their spectrum can reveal data on their distances, gases and other elements present there. “The funny thing is, we have all this stuff that we hope to learn from Webb, and this was nowhere near the top of the list,” he pointed out. "We found something we never thought to ask the universe, and faster than I thought."

The article with the results of the study was published in the journal Nature .

Source: Nature ; Via: Penn University , Space.com

 Possible massive galaxies, observed between 500 and 700 million years after the Big Bang (Image: Reproduction / NASA, ESA, CSA, I. LABBE)