Peculiar Galaxy in 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:
- Webb image of JADES-GS-z13-1 in the GOODS-S field: NASA, ESA, CSA
- JADES-GS-z13-1 spectrum graphic: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI (Joseph Olmsted)
- Webb image of JADES-GS-z13-1 (NIRCam Close-Up): NASA, ESA, CSA
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A collage of astronomical pictures of galaxies, stars, and planets. Text, News From the Universe. April 18, 2025. Peculiar Galaxy in Early Universe. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope a team of astronomers has unexpectedly identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in the early universe.
Astronomers confirmed the galaxy existed only 330 million years after the Big Bang. Galaxy Jades-GS-Z13-1.
A detection of bright and distinct hydrogen, as shown here, is known as Lyman-alpha emission. A spike in the middle of a waveform chart.
This challenges galaxy formation theories that say the Lyman-alpha emission from galaxies in this period should be blocked by a dense fog of neutral hydrogen.
Webb’s finding is spurring new questions: Why are we able to see such an early galaxy? Is its light from the first generation of stars, or hot gas around an early black hole?
The finding holds new clues for understanding when and how the energy of the first stars and galaxies ionized and cleared away the neutral hydrogen fog, allowing their light to travel throughout the universe.
This news was brought to you in part by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.