by From Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) – Scientists who use the James Webb World space telescope have identified an old and distant galaxy that provides evidence that an important transition period that the early universe has released from its “dark age” was previously assumed than before.
WebB, which has been over huge cosmic distances in the past, observed the galaxy as a Jades-GS-Z13-1, since it existed about 330 million years after the Bang event that the universe initiated about 13.8 billion years ago, the researchers said.
In comparison, the earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
It is believed that the universe has experienced a quick and exponential expansion in a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. After it had cooled sufficiently, there was a period called a cosmic dark age when the infant universe was enveloped in an electrically neutral state into a dense fog made of hydrogen gas.
This was followed by a time referred to as the era of risionization when the universe began to shine for the first time. WebB received evidence that Jades-GS-Z13-1, one of the earliest known galaxies, had made the transition to this era.
“In Jades-GS-Z13-1, Webb has confirmed one of the galaxies to date,” said the Astrophysical Joris Witstok from the Cosmic Dawn Center of the University of Copenhagen and the Niels Bohr Institute, Senior Author of the Study published in the Nature magazine.
“In contrast to any other, similarly distant galaxy, it shows a very clear, treacherous signature that indicates that the galaxy contains a remarkably strong source for energetic ultraviolet radiation and has started an unexpectedly early start of rice sion,” said Witstok.
The time when the first stars, black holes and galaxies of the universe are called cosmic dawn. As it formed the ultraviolet radiation, which emitted, the neutral hydrogen gas in a process that is referred to as Reiionization chemically changed and ultraviolet light escaped, which effectively “switched on” the lights in the cosmos.
“The universe, after the big bang, what a soup of hydrogen, helium and dark matter, slowly cooling off. Electron Bound to it, “Said Astrophysicist and Study Co-Aauthor Kevin Hainline of the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory.
“But when the first stars and galaxies from this early universe formed, the ultraviolet radiation began to knock on young stars and the cultivation of super massive black holes from these neutral hydrogen atoms. And over hundreds of millions of years, the universe switched from the universe, from which the universe was transparent to ultraviolet to ultraviolet light.
The researchers said that the light that WebB discovered in this galaxy resulted from a strong star development in the core of the galaxy.
This galaxy measures about 230 light years wide, several hundred times smaller than the Milky Way. A light year is the distance light in one year, 9.5 trillion km (5.9 trillion miles).
Webb, which was launched by NASA in 2022 and was put into operation in 2023, has started to convey a deeper understanding of the early universe. It only discovered four galaxies that go out to a little earlier than this, including the current record holder, which was observed 294 million years after the big bang. These galaxies have not shown any indication of reilonization.
The researchers were stunned to determine that Jades-GS-Z13-1 showed such evidence in form of a large bladder of ionized hydrogen, which she was surrounded by the fact that the Reonization started many millions of years later.
“Many independent measurements have determined that the reonization was only completed in about a billion years – 700 million years later than this galaxy – to get this galaxy to the beginning of reilonization. When it started exactly it began, one of the big outstanding questions in cosmology,” said Witstok.
(Reporting according to Will Dunham, editing of Rosalba O’Brien)
