We are talking about the galaxies JADES-GS-z10-0, JADES-GS-z11-0, JADES-GS-z12-0 and JADES-GS-z13-0. Galaxies have been discovered even earlier: JADES-GS-z13-0 was discovered by Webb in September 2022, and, for example, JADES-GS-z10-0 and z11-0 were first noticed by Hubble .
However, confirmation of these findings required spectroscopy, which could provide more precise data (compared to photometric methods) on the age and composition of these galaxies. It is this work and conducted by a team of scientists , which proved that we are talking about galaxies that appeared at the very dawn of the formation of the Universe. Three of them appeared less than 450 million years after the Big Bang, while JADES-GS-z13-0 origin 120 million years earlier making it the oldest known galaxy to date.
The Big Bang happened 13.8 billion years ago. If we scale the time from that moment to an Earth day, it turns out that these galaxies formed in the first half hour after midnight. For comparison – the Earth, formed by 9.26 billion after the Big Bang, would “appear” only in 16 hours.
Spectroscopic analysis has also shown that these galaxies are metal-poor and have a mass of about 107-108 solar masses. They are also the furthest galaxies from Earth (among those known to scientists).
The aforementioned galaxies in the region of the sky under study. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), Leah Hustak (STScI) Research: Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), E. Curtis-Lake (UOH), S. Carniani (Scuola Normale Superiore), Collaboration JADES
During the first months of work, James Webb discovered several dozen galaxies that claim to be the oldest. However, before spectroscopy, scientists do not dare to unambiguously confirm their age. When searching for candidates, scientists are guided by the so-called. “Redshift” is the name given to the decrease in radiation frequencies when a galaxy moves away as part of the expansion of the Universe.
Galaxies with a redshift greater than 10 are the most interesting, suggesting that the galaxies arose less than 450 million years ago. For JADES-GS-z10-0, JADES-GS-z11-0 and JADES-GS-z12-0 these numbers are between 10.3 and 12.6, but for JADES-GS-z13-0 the offset towards red is a record 13.2.
“It was important to prove that these galaxies inhabited the early universe. Nearby galaxies can very well disguise themselves as very distant galaxies, – Study co-author Emma Curtis-Lake said from the UK University of Hertfordshire. – Spectroscopy has confirmed, as we had hoped, that these galaxies are at the very edge of the world we observe, farther than the Hubble (telescope) could see! It’s an extremely exciting achievement.”
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