Webb Investigates Brightness of Early Galaxies
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Read the news release: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-134
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:
- Animation, James Webb Space Telescope: NASA.
- Animation, black hole simulation: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman.
- Galaxy field, James Webb Space Telescope: NASA, ESA, CSA, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin)
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A white line moves across colorful images of space.
Text: News from the Universe.
August 29, 2024. Webb investigates brightness of early galaxies.
Since NASA's James Webb Space Telescope began making observations in 2022, astronomers have been looking at how they match up with long-held theories of cosmic history.
The latest Webb data shows that early galaxies appear very bright because of active black holes, which are surrounded by fast-moving gas emitting heat and light.
If the galaxies' brightness was coming from lots of stars, the galaxies would be too massive too early to match up with our understanding of the universe. But the light due to black holes means the Standard Model still holds.
"We are still seeing more galaxies than predicted, although none of them are so massive that they 'break' the universe," said Katherine Chworosky, who led the study.
Webb is continuing to help us learn about this intriguing period in the universe's history, which has been largely inaccessible until now.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Insitute in Baltimore, MD.
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