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Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that transformed the early universe into the one we know today.
The tiny galaxies were discovered by Wold and his Goddard colleagues, Sangeeta Malhotra and James Rhoads, by sifting through Webb images captured as part of the UNCOVER (Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization) observing program, led by Rachel Bezanson at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
For much of its first billion years, the universe was immersed in a fog of neutral hydrogen gas. Today, this gas is ionized — stripped of its electrons. Astronomers, who refer to this transformation as reionization, have long wondered which types of objects were most responsible: big galaxies, small galaxies, or supermassive black holes in active galaxies. As one of its main goals, NASA’s Webb was specifically designed to address key questions about this major transition in the history of the universe.
Recent studies have shown that small galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation could have played an outsized role. Such galaxies are rare today, making up only about 1% of those around us. But they were abundant when the universe was about 800 million years old, an epoch astronomers refer to as redshift 7, when reionization was well underway.
In this image, white diamonds show the locations of 20 of the 83 young, low-mass, starburst galaxies found in infrared images of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. This composite incorporates images taken through three NIRCam filters (F200W as blue, F410M as green, and F444W as red). The F410M filter is highly sensitive to light emitted by doubly ionized oxygen — oxygen atoms that have been stripped of two electrons — at a time when reionization was well underway. Emitted as green light, the glow was stretched into the infrared as it traversed the expanding universe over billions of years. The cluster’s mass acts as a natural magnifying glass, allowing astronomers to see these tiny galaxies as they were when the universe was about 800 million years old.
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Bezanson et al. 2024 and Wold et al. 2025
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAWebb #JWST #NASAGoddard #galaxy
I wanted to see what was the furthest I ever found in an image. Recently I had been working on imagery of M81/82 together with Neil Fleming and Michael Van Doorn. These images went very deep, up to magnitude 24.0 or so (credits for that fully go to Neil!). In this image I found two objects at 11.9 and 12.1 billion lightyears. This is really astonishing for me... Never thought amateur imagery could show something like this... I double checked this with the Aladin Sky Atlas and I'm really convinced they are visible...
A spiral galaxy, an edge-on disk, a few other background goodies, and a remarkable pair of dwarf galaxies. The bright pair near the right side of the frame could be an interacting pair, or, interestingly perhaps an overlapping line-of-sight pair, though I really have no way of confirming that. Pay close attention to the reddish/yellowish dust around that bright nucleus at the bottom. See how it encircles the nucleus without looking all that disturbed? Maybe they aren't interacting. Or maybe if they are, it's at an early point. Either way, it's very interesting to see backlit dust in the outskirts of a galaxy. It's usually invisible to us at these wavelengths.
Color comes from PanSTARRS this time.
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
Luminosity: ACS/WFC F606W
Red: PanSTARRS z
Green: PanSTARRS i
Blue: PanSTARRS g
North is 24.50° clockwise from up.
Alias: Redshift (Currently), Blur (Formerly)
Real Name: Brooke Benson
Gender: Female
Allegiance: Hero
Backstory: Brooke would always be running around, being active in various sports. Despite looking quite happy, there was a deep seeded sadness within her, which she couldn't shake. Her powers didn't make things any easier. A constant need to be moving around, with her whole body vibrating constantly. It freaked her parents out various times, and would visit several specialists, but there wasn't a solution given to this problem. This problem would lead to her pushing away any guys that were interested in her romantically, as she didn't want to hurt them. It was at this time in which she would become a hero, as running seemed to stop the vibrating, at least for a short while. She would call herself Blur, as that's all she is when she's running. Since she was just a freshman in high-school at the time, she mostly avoided fights with villains, and focused on rescue operations. This eventually attracted the attention of the first Burnout, Garrett Reddick. He saw her potential, and wanted to teach her how to better use her gifts. At least that's what she thought. In reality, he wanted to find someone who he could truly mold, as his attempts with his son didn't work. He would find a way to lessen the rate at which she vibrates, and in return, she became his sidekick. This was during the time when his son Marcus was in a coma. Now being able to somewhat control her vibrations, she would have various flings with different guys, even going so far as to sleep with some of them, as she didn't see her own worth. While she was considered his sidekick, Brooke had her own ideas of what being a hero entailed, as the examples were all around them. This would lead to them fighting, even during battles with supervillains. Brooke would stop being his sidekick altogether upon graduating high school. three years later, when she couldn't take it anymore. Adopting a new name, Redshift, along with a new costume, she would become a hero in her own right. The sadness was still there though, as all of her high-school friends moved on, while she started working a minimum wage job. There were times when she considered ending it all, but being a hero pushed her through it all. A solution would come years later, though not necessarily the one she may have expected, in the form of Euphoria. It was the new drug of choice for the seedy underbelly of Cardinal City. People who wanted a way out of their sadness. Of course Brooke would take this opportunity to get some for herself. Obviously this was a conflict of interest, but she couldn't stand being sad anymore. A new hero calling himself Burnout would be seen in public for the first time, but Brooke recognized that it wasn't Garrett. After taking Euphoria, she would feel indestructible, like she could do anything. She had no fear, which led to her charging headfirst into a supervillain prison breakout by herself. This new Burnout would save her from getting herself killed, even though she tried so hard to do things by herself. He delayed her until Archon arrived, who would round up most of the escapees. After the effects of the drug wore off, Brooke thanked this new Burnout, by kissing him and running away straight after. She recalls that this Burnout is nothing like the monster Burnout she was the sidekick of. Hopefully, in time, she can find a way past her inner sadness, along with the vibrations, but for now, she's Redshift, a hero whose always on the move to save whoever she can.
Status: Traveling with the Five Wonders, helping wherever they are needed.
London
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Why do some Hubble images possess unusual staircase-like shapes?
This Hubble image combines infrared, ultraviolet and visible light gathered by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This camera was operational between 1994 and 2010, producing images with an unusual staircase-like shape as seen here. This is because the camera was made up of four light detectors with overlapping fields of view, one of which gave a higher magnification than the other three. When the four images are combined together in one picture, the high-magnification image needs to be reduced in size in order for the image to align properly. This produces an image with a layout that looks like steps.
This image reveals Messier 90, a beautiful spiral galaxy located roughly 60 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation of Virgo (the Virgin). The galaxy is part of the Virgo Cluster, a gathering of galaxies that is over 1,200 strong.
Messier 90 is remarkable; it is one of the few galaxies seen to be traveling toward the Milky Way, not away from it. The galaxy’s light reveals this incoming motion in a phenomenon known as blueshift. In simple terms, the galaxy is compressing the wavelength of its light as it moves towards us, like a slinky being squashed when you push on one end. This increases the frequency of the light and shifts it towards the blue end of the spectrum. As our universe is expanding, almost all of the galaxies we see in the universe are moving away from us, and we therefore see their light more towards the red end of the spectrum, known as redshift. Messier 90, however, appears to be a rare exception.
Astronomers think that this blueshift is likely caused by the cluster’s colossal mass accelerating its members to high velocities on bizarre and peculiar orbits, sending them whirling around on odd paths that take them both towards and away from us over time. While the cluster itself is moving away from us, some of its constituent galaxies, such as Messier 90, are moving faster than the cluster as a whole, making it so that, from Earth, we see the galaxy heading towards us. However, some are also moving in the opposite direction within the cluster, and thus seem to be streaking away from us at very high velocity.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Sargent et al.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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A single 5 second exposure the Milky Way as seen from the Fish River Canyon in Namibia, Southern Hemisphere, August 2014.
One of my first Astophotography images that rekindled my lifelong interest in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
I got my first small Telescope soon after, and the rest is history. View my Astrophotography Gallery, with a collection new and old images.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -
Carl Sagan.
Martin
-
[Home Page] [Photography Showcase] [eBook] [Twitter]
You're looking at more than 45,000 galaxies.
This image was taken as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) — one of Webb’s largest first year science programs. Though data is still coming in, JADES is already revolutionizing what we know about galaxies and star formation in the early universe.
Light from distant galaxies is stretched to longer wavelengths and “redder” colors over time due to the expansion of the universe — a phenomenon called redshift. Astronomers measure a galaxy’s redshift to learn how far away it is, as well as when it existed in the early universe. Before Webb, there were only a few dozen galaxies observed above a redshift of 8, corresponding to when the universe was younger than 650 million years old. Now Webb’s JADES program has uncovered nearly a thousand of these extremely distant galaxies!
Learn more: go.nasa.gov/3WU0cmr
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA), with image processing by Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image description: Thousands of small galaxies are scattered on a black background. Some are noticeably spirals, either face-on or edge-on, while others are blobby ellipticals. Many are too small to discern any structure. A few spirals are bluish, but most of the galaxies appear yellow or red. A handful of stars display eight-point diffraction spikes.
A breathtakingly dimensional interaction between two galaxies. Our point of view combined with the tidal strands connecting the two galaxies provides us with a rarely discernable (among deep space imagery) feel of positionality, foreground, and background.
Data provided by the fruitfully formidable Proposal 15446.
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
Color obtained from the generally generous Legacy Survey.
LS data were also used to smooth out and enhance the noisier, darker parts of the image.
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
Red: Legacy Survey z
Green: Legacy Survey r
Blue: Legacy Survey g
North is 18.41° counter-clockwise from up.
One of those times when trying to preserve highlights while scanning messes up the colour balance... and the new colours are better than the old ones.
Date: 2023-08-25
Location: Krivaja Vojnicka, Croatia
Telescope: SW 130 PDS
Camera: Canon 2000D
Mount: SW EQ3 (Asterion mod)
Exp: 200x120s
Additional Ha signal provided by Luka Faltis
WO 80mm APO with QHY9m
Exposure 22hrs 45 mins
Messier 81 is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away, with a diameter of 90,000 light years, about half the size of the Milky Way, in the constellation Ursa Major. Wikipedia
Distance to Earth: 11.74 million light years
Magnitude: 6.94
Apparent size (V): 26.9 × 14.1 moa
Redshift: −0.000113
Galactocentric velocity: 73
Coordinates: RA 9h 55m 33s | Dec +69° 3′ 55″
Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's center. Wikipedia
Distance to Earth: 11.42 million light years
Magnitude: 8.41
Coordinates: RA 9h 55m 52s | Dec +69° 40′ 47″
Apparent size (V): 11′.2 × 4′.3
Redshift: 203±4 km/s
Stars: 30 billion
The infrared image shown here was taken as part of the JADES programme (the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) and shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South.
This region was the focus area of Webb study for an international team of astronomers, who observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains at redshift ~7. This is roughly equivalent to one billion years after the birth of the Universe. Similar observational signatures have been observed in the much more recent Universe, attributed to complex, carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is not thought likely, however, that PAHs would have developed within the first billion years of cosmic time. Therefore, this observation suggests the exciting possibility that Webb may have observed a different species of carbon-based molecule: possibly minuscule graphite- or diamond-like grains produced by the earliest stars or supernovae. This observation suggests exciting avenues of investigation into both the production of cosmic dust and the earliest stellar populations in our Universe, and was made possible by Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity.
In this image, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data at 0.9, 1.15, and 1.5 microns; 2.0, 2.77, and 3.55 microns; and 3.56, 4.1, and 4.44 microns (F090W, F115W, and F150W; F200W, F277W, and F335M; and F356W, F410M, and F444W), respectively.
[Image description: The image shows a deep galaxy field, featuring thousands of galaxies of various shapes and sizes.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), S. Tacchella (University of Cambridge, M. Rieke (Univ. of Arizona), D. Eisenstein (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), A. Pagan (STScI)
Abell 1367
Leo Galaxy Cluster
The Leo Cluster (Abell 1367) is a galaxy cluster about 330 million light-years distant in the constellation Leo, with at least 70 major galaxies. The elliptical galaxy known as NGC 3842 is the brightest member of this cluster. This is seen to the left and slightly upward of the center of the image. Along with the Coma Cluster, the Leo cluster is one of the two major clusters comprising the Coma Supercluster, which in turn is part of the CfA2 Great Wall, an immense galaxy filament which is hundreds of millions of light years long and is one of the largest known structures in the universe. The “CfA” designation refers to “Center for Astrophysics” redshift survey and was an attempt to map the large scale structure of the universe. CfA2 was the second survey started in 1985 and the Great Wall was discovered in 1989
The Leo Cluster mostly contains spiral galaxies, suggesting that it is much younger than other comparable clusters, such as the Coma Cluster. It is also home to one of the universe's largest known black holes, which lies in the center of NGC 3842. The black hole is 9.7 billion times more massive than our sun. (Wikipedia)
Capture info:
Location: Orion’s Belt Remote Observatory, Mayhill NM
Telescope: Takahashi ED180
Mount: Paramount MX+
Camera: SBIG STXL 16200
Data: LRGB 2.5,2,2,2.5 hrs (5min subframes)
Processing: Pixinsight
33 x 300 s
FSQ-106ED, QHY16200A, Astro-Physics Mach1
Processed with Pixinsight and PS.
APCC, APT, PHD2
Southern RedShift Observatory (remote)
Collaboration with E. Oliveira
May 23, 28, 30 and 31, 2020.
This multi-telescope composite combines X-ray, infrared and optical data of the galaxy cluster XDCPJ0044.0-2033.
The purple/pink in the image corresponds to infrared emission measured by Herschel and X-ray emission detected with NASA's Chandra telescope.
Infrared data from ESA's Herschel telescope has revealed where interstellar dust in the cluster's core is being heated by young, hot, stars. This is the first time that star formation has been found in the core of a cluster of this size and age.
The X-ray data were used to map the mass of this giant cluster.
These data have been combined with optical and near-infrared images of the cluster captured by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru telescope and the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, the data from which are coloured red, green and blue in this image.
XDCPJ0044.0-2033 is a massive galaxy cluster with an estimated mass of about four hundred thousand billion times that of our Sun. It lies at a redshift of almost 1.6, meaning that we see it as it was 9.6 billion years ago.
Read more: sci.esa.int/herschel/55150-herschel-view-of-the-early-uni...
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/P.Tozzi, et al; Optical: NAOJ/Subaru and ESO/VLT; Infrared: ESA/Herschel/J. Santos, et al.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy LRG-3-817, also known as SDSS J090122.37+181432.3. The galaxy, its image distorted by the effects of gravitational lensing, appears as a long arc to the left of the central galaxy cluster. Gravitational lensing occurs when a large distribution of matter, such as a galaxy cluster, sits between Earth and a distant light source. As space is warped by massive objects, the light from the distant object bends as it travels to us and we see a distorted image of it. This effect was first predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Strong gravitational lenses provide an opportunity for studying properties of distant galaxies, since Hubble can resolve details within the multiple arcs that are one of the main results of gravitational lensing. An important consequence of lensing distortion is magnification, allowing us to observe objects that would otherwise be too far away and too faint to be seen. Hubble makes use of this magnification effect to study objects beyond the sensitivity of its 2.4-metre-diameter primary mirror, showing us the most distant galaxies humanity has ever encountered. This lensed galaxy was found as part of the Sloan Bright Arcs Survey, which discovered some of the brightest gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxies in the night sky.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Allam et al.; CC BY 4.0
This image highlights the location of the galaxy JADES-GS-z6 in a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, which was observed as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES.
More + high resolution image: www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_s...
This galaxy, along with others in this region, were part of a Webb study by an international team of astronomers, who observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains at redshift ~7. This is roughly equivalent to one billion years after the birth of the Universe. Similar observational signatures have been observed in the much more recent Universe, attributed to complex, carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It is not thought likely, however, that PAHs would have developed within the first billion years of cosmic time. Therefore, this observation suggests the exciting possibility that Webb may have observed a different species of carbon-based molecule: possibly minuscule graphite- or diamond-like grains produced by the earliest stars or supernovae. This observation suggests exciting avenues of investigation into both the production of cosmic dust and the earliest stellar populations in our Universe, and was made possible by Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity.
The team’s research indicates that this particular galaxy showed significant dust obscuration and has undergone substantial metal enrichment relative to galaxies with similar mass at the same redshift. The team also believes the galaxy's visible colour gradient may indicate a peculiar geometrical alignment of stars and dust.
In this image, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data at 0.9, 1.15, and 1.5 microns; 2.0, 2.77, and 3.55 microns; and 3.56, 4.1, and 4.44 microns (F090W, F115W, and F150W; F200W, F277W, and F335M; and F356W, F410M, and F444W), respectively.
The galaxy is shown zoomed in on a region measuring roughly 1x1 arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to 1/3600 of one degree of arc (the full Moon has an angular diameter of about 0.5 degrees). The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.
Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), S. Tacchella (University of Cambridge, M. Rieke (Univ. of Arizona), D. Eisenstein (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), A. Pagan (STScI)
[Image description: The image shows a deep galaxy field, featuring thousands of galaxies of various shapes and sizes. A cutout indicates a particular galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z6, which was a research target for this result. It appears as a blurry smudge of blue, red and green.]
Umbrellas and streams around an irregularly shaped galaxy. It has some of look of the makings of an elliptical galaxy. The veil of dust across the nucleus is a nice touch.
This one was a bit faint; I brightened it a bit and it looks noisier because of that. A partial shell to the west of the galaxy was not included in the Hubble image. Please check the widefield view to see that.
A widefield color view of the galaxy is available here:
legacysurvey.org/viewer?ra=10.8893&dec=-4.1172&la...
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All Channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 2.68° clockwise from up.
An all electric Alta Motors Redshift MX powers through a turn at the District 34 motocross race at Gotham Mountain in Bridgeville, NY.
Color version. Not sure I'm happy with it. Always looks weird when ground-based data are used to colorize HST data.
Copy-pasta from grayscale image description:
Well, it's been a while since I did a Prop15446 galaxy. This one was PI Julianne Dalcanton's favorite, so of course I had to. Featured are two interacting galaxies, one clearly full of star formation and dust with the other one smooth and not apparently doing much beyond participating in the interaction. The clumpy, dusty star-forming galaxy, perhaps once a spiral, now visibly being pulled into the smooth galaxy.
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
Luminosity: ACS/WFC F606W
Red: PANSTARRS r
Green: PANSTARRS g
Blue: SDSS u
North is 8.21° clockwise from up.
Stephan's Quintet in the constellation Pegasus may be one of the most famous groups of galaxies. One reason is that it is the first compact group of galaxies (discovered by Edouard Stephan from Marseille in 1877). Furthermore, it shows a peculiar difference in hue between four reddish-yellowish members and one distinctly more bluish galaxy NGC7320, in this image at the 1 o'clock position of the group. In fact, also the redshift of this galaxy is vastly lower than that of the others, which puzzled astronomers for decades. The mystery was solved by the Hubble space telescope, which could clearly resolve stars in NGC7320, but not in the others, proving that it was in fact not a member of the group, but a foreground dwarf galaxy at only about 40 million light years distance. The rest of the clusters is much further away at about 290 light years.
So is Stephan's Quintet actually a Quartet now? Well, a bit off to the right hand side lies the small lenticular galaxy NGC7320C, which is apparently an actual member of the Hickson Compact Group 92, as the interacting galaxies in this image are also called.
The image seen here was acquired on a single evening during a guided tour at the Volkssternwarte München. Visitors could see the image in the making with the help of live stacking. It took a little over 2.5 hours to acquire all images that went into this final stack, which was later created off-line from single exposures aquired during the evening.
Acquisition details:
Telescope: Meade LX200 SCT 16" f/10, reduced by 0.63x (effective focal length 2.5 m at f/6.3)
Camera: ASI294MC Pro, cooled to -10 °C, Bin 1, Gain 120
Exposures used in stack: 284x 30 seconds
no filters (besides Bayer matrix)
Calibration: darks, flats, bias
Processing:
Stacking, Background refinement, photometric color calibration & stretching in SiRiL
some more refinement in fitswork
final touch-up in Luminar 2018
Markarians Chain (13.05.2021)
M84 aka NGC4374
M86 aka NGC4406
It includes also
the galaxies:
NGC4435 The Eyes (Copelands Augen) ~52 mly distance
NGC4438 The Eyes (Copelands Augen) ~52 mly distance
NGC4402~ 50 mly distance, 55 kly diameter
NGC4425 ~83 mly distance, 70kly diameter
NGC4413 / NGC4407 2 mly distance (ignoring redshift),
NGC4387 18mly distance 120kly diametr
IC3303
IC3393
IC3355
IC3333
IC3315
The bigger Stars:
HD108450
HD108285
HD108091
40 lights 180 sec. Gain26
30 darks
30 bias
30 (dark) flats
#idaslpsd2 Filter
#qhy268c f4 #celestroncgxlmount #
#astrophotography #universetoday #milkyway #astrophoto #astrography #nightsky #nightscaper #starphotography #starscape #natgeospace #starrynight #longexposure #astro_photography #deepsky #galaxy #neustadtanderweinstrasse #astromaniacmag #celestronrocks #astrobin #baaderplanetarium #jw #jwphotography
A four-way interaction going on with a dusty spiral disk onlooker apparently far enough away from the activity not to be disturbed much by it.
This group sits just south of the magnificent NGC 3718, and has by proximity also been imaged by a lot of astrophotographers.
A Legacy Survey view is here: legacysurvey.org/viewer?ra=173.1635&dec=52.9433&z...
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 37.93° clockwise from up.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has yet another discovery machine aboard – the Near-Infrared Spectrograph’s (NIRSpec’s) microshutter array. This instrument has more than 248,000 tiny doors that can be individually opened to gather spectra (light) of up to approximately 150 individual objects simultaneously.
Of the thousands of distant galaxies behind galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, NIRSpec observed 48 individually – all at the same time – in a field that is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. Quick analysis made it immediately clear that several of these galaxies were observed as they existed at very early periods in the history of the universe, which is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old.
Look for the same feature highlighted in each spectrum. Three lines appear in the same order every time – one hydrogen line followed by two ionised oxygen lines. Where this pattern falls on each spectrum tells researchers the redshift of individual galaxies, revealing how long ago their light was emitted.
Light from the farthest galaxy shown travelled 13.1 billion years before Webb’s mirrors captured it. These observations mark the first time these particular emission lines have been seen at such immense distances – and these are only Webb’s initial observations. There may be even more distant galaxies in this image!
In these spectra, Webb has also shown us the chemical composition of galaxies in the very early universe for the first time. This was made possible by the telescope’s position in space – far away from Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out some infrared light – and its specialisation in gathering high-resolution near-infrared light.
And since similar spectra from galaxies at closer distances have long been studied by other space- and ground-based observatories, astronomers already know a lot about the properties of nearby galaxies. Now, astronomers will be able to study and compare spectra from Webb to determine how galaxies have changed over billions of years, dating back to the early universe.
With Webb’s data, researchers can now measure each galaxy’s distance, temperature, gas density, and chemical composition. We will soon learn an incredible amount about galaxies that existed all across cosmic time!
NIRSpec was built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center providing its detector and micro-shutter subsystems.
Get the full array of Webb’s first images and spectra, including downloadable files, here.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The J.Gulliem Orient on my sunday autumn ride.
Strolling around, visiting the upper Bergisches Land, getting a nice steady zone 2 endurance workout in and testing the redshift Dual-Position seatpost.
(Yeah, still waiting for the crash replacement of the front wheel)
--
Das J.Guillem Orient während meiner Sonntags-Herbst-Ausfahrt.
Spazierenfahren, das Oberbergische besuchen, ein schön gleichmäßiges Zone 2 Grundlagenausdauer-Workout durchführen und die redshift Dual-Position Sattelstütze testen.
(Ja, ich warte immer noch auf das Crash Replacement des Vorderrads)
A long time ago… in galaxies far far away, the first stars were born in the early universe. But when and how? That’s a mystery Webb is one step closer to solving.
Using Webb, researchers have found two early galaxies that are unusually bright, one of which could contain the most distant starlight ever seen. The galaxies are thought to have existed 350 and 450 million years after the big bang (respectively, from top to bottom). Unlike our Milky Way, these first galaxies are small and compact, with spherical or disk shapes rather than grand spirals.
Webb’s new findings suggest that the galaxies would have had to begin coming together about 100 million years after the big bang — meaning that the first stars might have started forming in such galaxies around that time, much earlier than expected.
Follow-up observations with Webb’s spectrographs will confirm the distances of these primordial galaxies and help us learn more about the earliest stars. More: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-draws-back-...
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA)
[Image description: Graphic titled “Abell 2744 GLASS; JWST / NIRCam,” with two large square images, one on the left and one on the right, and two smaller images in between, one stacked above the other. The small images are zoom-ins that show details in the large images. The large image on the left shows galaxies of different colors, shapes, and sizes, and several bright foreground stars with Webb’s characteristic diffraction pattern. On the left side of this image is a box around a galaxy, labeled “1”, which zooms in to a red galaxy shown in the top small center pullout image. Image 1 is labeled “z ~ 10.5” to indicate that the galaxy’s redshift is about 10.5. The image on the right also shows galaxies of different colors, shapes, and sizes, but without any prominent diffraction spikes seen in the left image. It includes a box on the left side, labeled “2”, which zooms into a red galaxy, shown in the bottom center image. Pullout image 2 is labeled “z ~ 12.5” to show that the galaxy’s redshift is about 12.5.]
29.05.2025.
Prisjeka, Croatia
Telescope: SW 130PDS
Camera: ZWO ASI585MC PRO
Filter: ZWO UV/IR 1.25''
Mount: AstroBobo HEQ5 Pro (Mod by Leviner)
Guding: ZWO ASI120MMS + SVBONY 120MM F4
321x120s (10h42min)
"Redshift" Self Portrait September 2019 Black and white version :)
© 2019 Sabine Fischer
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