Oxygen detected in the most distant galaxy ever found

The JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy, discovered last year by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the most distant and oldest galaxy ever found. The JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy is so far away that its light took 13.4 billion years to reach Earth. Astronomers believe the Big Bang created the universe 13.8 billion years ago.

This means that what the James Webb Telescope has captured at the present time is an image of JADES-GS-z14-0 when the universe was only about 300 million years old. Thereby, studying this galaxy can help reveal information about the universe when it was still young.

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant galaxy ever found

PHOTO: ESA, NASA, CSA, STScl/AFP

Since its launch in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that galaxies in the early universe were brighter, faster-growing, and more numerous than scientists had assumed. During this period, known as the cosmic dawn, newly forming galaxies are thought to have been made up of only young stars, mostly composed of light elements like hydrogen and helium. Later, they began to have heavier elements like oxygen and heavy metals.

However, two new studies have found that JADES-GS-z14-0 has about 10 times more heavy elements than predicted.

Sander Schouws from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, lead author of a Dutch-led study, likened it to "finding a teenager when you were expecting a baby".

"These results show that this galaxy formed very quickly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that galaxy formation occurs much faster than expected," Schouws told The Astrophysical Journal .

Astrophysicist Stefano Carniani, lead author of the Italian-led scientific paper to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics , said he was "very surprised by these unexpected results".

“Evidence of a mature galaxy so early in the universe raises questions about when and how galaxies form,” said Carniani.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/phat-hien-oxy-tren-thien-ha-xa-nhat-tung-duoc-tim-thay-185250320212221648.htm