Although it may seem impossible to look back into the very beginning of the cosmos, scientists have actually discovered artifacts from extremely far into the past.
A “really surprising” discovery made by some of the top astronomers in the world from billions of years ago has the potential to fundamentally alter our understanding of the cosmos.
It resulted from an analysis of data obtained by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam).
Experts may now examine the universe’s earliest galaxies, providing a glimpse into the circumstances that existed eons ago, thanks to tremendously enhanced technology.
It is almost unbelievable to think that a group of scientists from Durham University were able to detect data known as bar formation from just a few billion years after the cosmos was established. The universe is estimated to be 13.7 billion years old.
That is more distant than the earlier discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope, which provide information on circumstances nine billion years ago.
More than just providing a more advanced look into the past than previously possible, the new results are important. As a matter of fact, the nature of the discoveries may require a reassessment of our knowledge of the early cosmos.
It has to do with bar formations since these more firmly established shapes are signs of more settled settings compared to the more chaotically formed galaxies during their early stages of development.
The primary author of the study and a PhD candidate in Durham University’s Department of Physics’ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy is Zoe Le Conte.
“Galaxies in the early universe are maturing much faster than we thought. This is a real surprise because you would expect the universe at that stage to be very turbulent with lots of collisions between galaxies and a lot of gas that hasn’t yet transformed into stars. Le Conte stated.
“However, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope we are seeing a lot of these bars much earlier in the life of the Universe which means that galaxies were at a more settled stage in their evolution than previously thought.”
“This means we will have to adjust our views on early galaxy evolution.”
