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Earliest and most distant galaxy ever observed

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16 minutes ago

Jonathan Amos,Science correspondent, @BBCAmos

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Brant Robertson et al

The James Webb Space Telescope has smashed its own record for detecting the most distant known galaxy.

Called JADES-GS-z14-0, the collection of stars was spied as it was a mere 290 million years after the Big Bang.

Put another way – if the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, it means we’re observing the galaxy when the cosmos was only 2% of its current age.

Webb used its huge 6.5m-wide primary mirror and sensitive infrared instruments to make the discovery.

The telescope’s previous record holder was a galaxy seen at 325 million years after the Big Bang.

Astronomers say the most interesting aspect of the latest observation is not so much the great distance involved – as amazing as that is – but rather the size and brightness of JADES-GS-z14-0.

Webb measures the galaxy to be more than 1,600 light years across. Many of the most luminous galaxies generate the majority of their light via gas falling into a supermassive black hole. But the scale of JADES-GS-z14-0 indicates that is not the explanation in this case. Instead, the researchers believe the light is being produced by young stars.

“This much starlight implies that the galaxy is several hundreds of millions of times the mass of the Sun! This raises the question: how can nature make such a bright, massive, and large galaxy in less than 300 million years?” said Webb astronomers Stefano Carniani and Kevin Hainline.

Dr Carniani is affiliated to Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, and Dr Hainline is from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.<!–

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