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Webb Space Telescope Finds Candidate for ‘Most Distant’ Galaxy

时间:2022-11-28 00:37:24

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NASA's Webb Space Telescope is finding bright, early galaxies1 that, until recently, could not be seen. One of these galaxies may have formed only 350 million years after the Big Bang – the event that explains the beginning of the universe.

Researchers said recently that if the results are correct, the newly discovered galaxy2 could be the most distant one ever identified.

The Webb telescope was launched last December. The recently reported findings suggest that stars may have formed sooner during the formation of the universe than scientists believed. Stars might have formed only a few million years after the Big Bang.

An international team led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics detailed3 the latest findings in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The report gives more information about two unusually bright galaxies. One is thought to have formed 350 million years after the Big Bang and the other 450 million years after.

Naidu said more observations are needed by the Webb telescope before confirming that a new record has been set.

Some researchers report having found galaxies that formed even closer to the creation of the universe, which is estimated to be 13.8 billion years ago. Those candidates, however, have yet to be confirmed, scientists said at a NASA news conference.

Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz helped write the recent study. Illingworth described the current situation as "a very dynamic time," meaning a time that is active or changing.

Illingworth added that there have been lots of "announcements of even earlier galaxies, and we're still trying to sort out as a community which ones of those are likely to be real."

Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Los Angeles, is a chief scientist for Webb's early release science program. He said the evidence presented so far "is as solid as it gets" for the galaxy believed to have formed 350 million years after the Big Bang.

If the findings are confirmed and more early galaxies are out there, Naidu and his team wrote that Webb "will prove highly successful in pushing the cosmic frontier all the way to the brink4 of the Big Bang."

Brink means very close to something happening.

"When and how the first galaxies formed remains5 one of the most intriguing6 questions," they said in their paper.

NASA's Jane Rigby is a project scientist with Webb. She noted7 that these galaxies "were hiding just under the limits of what Hubble could do."

"They were right there waiting for us," she told reporters. "So that's a happy surprise that there are lots of these galaxies to study."

The $10 billion Webb is the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space. It is in a solar orbit 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. Full science operations began over the summer, and NASA has since released a series of beautiful images of the universe.

Words in This Story

sort out –v. (phrasal) to understand or make sense of something

cosmic – adj. of or relating to the universe or outer space

frontier – n. a distant area ; the limits of knowledge in a particular field

intriguing – adj. extremely interesting


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1 galaxies fa8833b92b82bcb88ee3b3d7644caf77     
星系( galaxy的名词复数 ); 银河系; 一群(杰出或著名的人物)
参考例句:
  • Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
  • We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。
2 galaxy OhoxB     
n.星系;银河系;一群(杰出或著名的人物)
参考例句:
  • The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
  • The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。
3 detailed xuNzms     
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的
参考例句:
  • He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
  • A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
4 brink OWazM     
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿
参考例句:
  • The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
  • The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。
5 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
6 intriguing vqyzM1     
adj.有趣的;迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词);激起…的好奇心
参考例句:
  • These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
  • It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

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