Discoveries in A Distant Galaxy
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Read the news release: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-106
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:
- GOODS-North field of galaxies, including galaxy GN-z11: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA)
- Spectra infographic for GN-z11: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
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A line moves through colorful photographs of outer space.
Text, News From the Universe.
March 15, 2024. Discoveries in a distant galaxy.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has new details on one of the most distant galaxies ever observed, originally discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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The galaxy, GN-z11, existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only about 430 million years old.
Webb found that the young galaxy is home to an active supermassive black hole, the farthest found to date.
Researchers also found an intriguing clump of helium gas in the galaxy's halo.
It's theorized that in the early universe, the first stars formed from gas like this that was created in the big bang, before other elements existed.
It's possible that Webb detected a relic clump of pristine helium, which would allow astronomers to study an environment similar to the first star's for the first time.
The researchers plan follow-up studies to discover more about this distant galaxy and its potentially star-forming clump of helium.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD.