James Webb telescope finds ancient galaxy larger than our Milky Way, and it's threatening to upend cosmology

  • 📰 LiveScience
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 31 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 16%
  • Publisher: 51%

United States News News

United States Latest News,United States Headlines

Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist.

The James Webb Space Telescope has found a galaxy in the early universe that's so massive, it shouldn't exist, posing a"significant challenge" to the standard model of cosmology, according to the study authors.

Light travels at a fixed speed through the vacuum of space, so the deeper we look into the universe, the more remote light we intercept and the further back in time we see. This is what enabled the researchers to use JWST to spot ZF-UDS-7329 roughly 11.5 billion years in the past. Current theories suggest that halos of dark matter combined with gas to form the first seedlings of galaxies. After 1 billion to 2 billion years of the universe's life, the early protogalaxies then reached adolescence, forming into dwarf galaxies that began devouring one another to grow into ones like our own.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 538. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

19 Stunning Galaxy Images from the James Webb Space TelescopeExplore the universe with JWST's stunning images of 19 spiral galaxies. These star clusters and gas filaments offer new insights into galaxy evolution and star formation.
Source: DiscoverMag - 🏆 459. / 53 Read more »

Very Large Telescope snaps gorgeous shot of Milky Way's star-studded core (photo)Samantha Mathewson joined Space.com as an intern in the summer of 2016. She received a B.A. in Journalism and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut. Previously, her work has been published in Nature World News.
Source: SPACEdotcom - 🏆 92. / 67 Read more »

Webb finds ice worlds on edge of our solar system that aren’t dead yetWebb has discovered new ice worlds on the outskirts of our solar system that astronomers say may not be dead.
Source: BGR - 🏆 234. / 63 Read more »

– Webb Space Telescope Discovers Mysterious Ancient GalaxiesScience, Space and Technology News 2024
Source: SciTechDaily1 - 🏆 84. / 68 Read more »

Webb Can Directly Test One Theory for Dark MatterDark matter played a role in early galaxy formation and it may have been affected by supersonic interactions witih regular matter.
Source: universetoday - 🏆 297. / 63 Read more »

Which came first: Black holes or galaxies?Black holes not only existed at the dawn of time, they birthed new stars and supercharged galaxy formation, a new analysis of James Webb Space Telescope data suggests.
Source: ScienceDaily - 🏆 452. / 53 Read more »