Surprising Galaxies in the Early Universe

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Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Video imagery:

  • Annotated images of Abell 2744: NASA, ESA, CSA, Tommaso Treu (UCLA). Image processing: Zolt G. Levay (STScI)

Writer: Leah Ramsay
Designer: Leah Hustak, Joseph Olmsted
Science review: Dr. Quyen Hart
Education review: Jim Manning
Music from Music for Non-Profits 

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Images of galaxies being born and dying; explosions from within and expansions from without.
 
Text, News from the Universe.
 
Surprising Galaxies in the Early Universe. November 22, 2022.
 
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is finding compact galaxies in the early universe that are much brighter than expected.
 
1. A tiny speck in a sea of galaxies against an infinitely black sky.
 
Quote, "These observations just make your head explode. This is a whole new chapter in astronomy," said astronomer Paola Santini.
 
The galaxies could have begun forming only 100 million years after the Big Bang, much earlier than previously thought.
 
2. Celestial bodies enveloped in gaseous plumes.
 
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Text, Webb will follow up to confirm the galaxies' distances and the characteristics of their stars, which potentially include the first generation of stars ever to form.
 
This news was brought to you in part by the JWST/NIR Cam. Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.