Latest news with #GS-z13-1
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Spotted Evidence of an Unseen Universe
The James Webb Space Telescope's JADES survey recently observed a galaxy that shouldn't be visible, because it existed only 300 million years after the Big Bang. At that point in cosmic history, the universe was shrouded by neutral hydrogen, and most objects and phenomena would not be visible until nearly a billion years later. For now, researchers think the light might be coming from the first stars to exist, or outflows from a supermassive black hole at the galactic core. But the source remains unknown. Deep in the universe are stars and galaxies and objects so distant that the light we're watching them produce is billions of years old. But there is one ancient light we can see that we shouldn't be seeing at all. As part of the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spotted something that should not be visible to us—the galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1. This galaxy existed only 330 million years after the Big Bang, which was very much still the universe's baby phase. Webb was able to spot GS-z13-1 in the first place by picking up on clear Lyman-alpha emissions from the galaxy. These emissions are released when an electron in a neutral hydrogen atom is excited by a photon that is energetic enough, and are very commonly detected throughout the cosmos. But here's the thing—they're very commonly detected now. Technically speaking, we should not be able to detect Lyman-alpha emissions from just 330 million years after the Big Bang. Shrouded in neutral hydrogen, which absorbs light, the universe was mostly opaque during its earliest days, and remained so until about a billion years after its birth. It was only during the epoch of reionization that light from stars became powerful enough to tear apart these atoms, rip off their electrons, and escape through the cloud. With all that neutral hydrogen now ionized—meaning that it was positively charged, as a result of losing its negatively charged electrons—the universe became transparent. That's the first moment at which we should be able to detect Lyman-alpha emissions. But if this didn't happen until about a billion years after the Big Bang, how is it possible that scientists can see GS-z13-1, which existed when its light should have been obscured? 'The unexpected Lyman-alpha emission indicates the galaxy is a prolific producer and leaker of ionizing photons,' NASA and ESA researchers said in a study recently published in the journal Nature. 'This suggests massive, hot stars or an active galactic nucleus (AGN) have created an early reionized region to prevent complete [suppression] of Lyman-alpha.' It is possible that the first stars to exist—known as Population III or Pop III stars—are the source of the light coming from GS-z13-1. These stars are thought to have been much more massive and luminous than stars that exist now, and it would be an incredible discovery if it was confirmed that the Lyman-alpha emissions are coming from Pop III stars. But there are some issues with this theory—the stellar mass predicted from the galaxy is not high enough to allow for these stars, for example. There are also some other emissions expected from Pop III stars that are missing from GS-z13-1. The researchers think another possibility is the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's active galactic nucleus, or AGN. Supermassive black holes accrete and devour so much matter that they belch out enormous and extremely bright outflows of gas, which scientists think could have been enough to reionize just one section of the universe a little bit early. For now, we're all still in the dark. But scientists are grateful for—if confused by the existence of—this ancient flashlight. You Might Also Like Can Apple Cider Vinegar Lead to Weight Loss? Bobbi Brown Shares Her Top Face-Transforming Makeup Tips for Women Over 50
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Spotted Evidence of an Unseen Universe—Even Though That Should Be Impossible
The James Webb Space Telescope's JADES survey recently observed a galaxy that shouldn't be visible, because it existed only 300 million years after the Big Bang. At that point in cosmic history, the universe was shrouded by neutral hydrogen, and most objects and phenomena would not be visible until nearly a billion years later. For now, researchers think the light might be coming from the first stars to exist, or outflows from a supermassive black hole at the galactic core. But the source remains unknown. Deep in the universe are stars and galaxies and objects so distant that the light we're watching them produce is billions of years old. But there is one ancient light we can see that we shouldn't be seeing at all. As part of the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spotted something that should not be visible to us—the galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1. This galaxy existed only 330 million years after the Big Bang, which was very much still the universe's baby phase. Webb was able to spot GS-z13-1 in the first place by picking up on clear Lyman-alpha emissions from the galaxy. These emissions are released when an electron in a neutral hydrogen atom is excited by a photon that is energetic enough, and are very commonly detected throughout the cosmos. But here's the thing—they're very commonly detected now. Technically speaking, we should not be able to detect Lyman-alpha emissions from just 330 million years after the Big Bang. Shrouded in neutral hydrogen, which absorbs light, the universe was mostly opaque during its earliest days, and remained so until about a billion years after its birth. It was only during the epoch of reionization that light from stars became powerful enough to tear apart these atoms, rip off their electrons, and escape through the cloud. With all that neutral hydrogen now ionized—meaning that it was positively charged, as a result of losing its negatively charged electrons—the universe became transparent. That's the first moment at which we should be able to detect Lyman-alpha emissions. But if this didn't happen until about a billion years after the Big Bang, how is it possible that scientists can see GS-z13-1, which existed when its light should have been obscured? 'The unexpected Lyman-alpha emission indicates the galaxy is a prolific producer and leaker of ionizing photons,' NASA and ESA researchers said in a study recently published in the journal Nature. 'This suggests massive, hot stars or an active galactic nucleus (AGN) have created an early reionized region to prevent complete [suppression] of Lyman-alpha.' It is possible that the first stars to exist—known as Population III or Pop III stars—are the source of the light coming from GS-z13-1. These stars are thought to have been much more massive and luminous than stars that exist now, and it would be an incredible discovery if it was confirmed that the Lyman-alpha emissions are coming from Pop III stars. But there are some issues with this theory—the stellar mass predicted from the galaxy is not high enough to allow for these stars, for example. There are also some other emissions expected from Pop III stars that are missing from GS-z13-1. The researchers think another possibility is the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's active galactic nucleus, or AGN. Supermassive black holes accrete and devour so much matter that they belch out enormous and extremely bright outflows of gas, which scientists think could have been enough to reionize just one section of the universe a little bit early. For now, we're all still in the dark. But scientists are grateful for—if confused by the existence of—this ancient flashlight. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Galaxy Caught Turning on Lights at Cosmic Dawn, Stunning Astronomers
A galaxy spotted just 330 million years after the Big Bang has been implicated in bringing light to the choking dark of the early Universe. It's called JADES-GS-z13-1, and an analysis of the very faint light it has sent from more than 13.4 billion years ago reveals that it played a role in the Epoch of Reionization – the billion-year process that cleared the opaque fog that filled the early Universe, allowing light to stream freely. This epoch of the Universe's history is really hard to see, making the mechanisms behind it something of a mystery. JADES-GS-z13-1 literally sheds light into an age of cosmic darkness. The result is a signature emission called Lyman-alpha which is emitted by hydrogen as it changes energy states and can only be seen once reionization has taken place. "The early Universe was bathed in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen," says astrophysicist Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge and University College London in the UK. "Most of this haze was lifted in a process called reionization, which was completed about one billion years after the Big Bang. GS-z13-1 is seen when the Universe was only 330 million years old, yet it shows a surprisingly clear, telltale signature of Lyman-alpha emission that can only be seen once the surrounding fog has fully lifted. This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise." Here's how the story goes. At the beginning of the Universe as we know it, within minutes of the Big Bang, space was filled with a hot, dense fog of plasma consisting of small atomic nuclei and free electrons. What little light there was wouldn't have penetrated this fog; photons would simply have scattered off the electrons floating around, effectively making the Universe dark. After about 300,000 years, as the Universe cooled, protons and electrons began to come together to form neutral hydrogen (and a little bit of helium) gas. Most wavelengths of light could penetrate this neutral medium, but there was little in the way of light to produce it. But from this hydrogen and helium, the first stars and galaxies were born. Those first light sources delivered powerful radiation that knocked electrons off the neutral hydrogen, returning it to an ionized state once more. By this point, however, the Universe had expanded so much that the gas was exponentially more diffuse, allowing light to pass through more easily and begin its long journey across the stretches of time and space. By about 1 billion years after the Big Bang, following the period known as the Cosmic Dawn, the Universe was transparent, the way we see it today. Et voilà! The lights were on. The problem with JADES-GS-z13-1 is that, even if it's participating in reionization, we still shouldn't be able to see it. The space immediately around the galaxy would be ionized, creating a bubble of clarity about 650,000 light-years across at the time we see it; but fog should still be wrapped around this little cavity of brilliance the galaxy has carved in space-time. "We really shouldn't have found a galaxy like this, given our understanding of the way the Universe has evolved," says astronomer Kevin Hainline of the University of Arizona in the US. "We could think of the early Universe as shrouded with a thick fog that would make it exceedingly difficult to find even powerful lighthouses peeking through, yet here we see the beam of light from this galaxy piercing the veil. This fascinating emission line has huge ramifications for how and when the Universe reionized." We thought we had a pretty good handle on the timeline and process of reionization. JADES-GS-z13-1 throws that for a loop. One possible explanation is that a rapidly feeding black hole is responsible, causing material around it to heat up and blaze with light. Another explanation for the Lyman-alpha brightness could be a large number of really massive, hot stars, between 100 and 300 times the mass of the Sun. Both prospects are intriguing, since each offers a different window into the infancy of the Universe; but, at this point, neither can be confirmed. Future observations of the strange galaxy are planned to help astronomers learn more. One thing that is becoming clear, like the space around JADES-GS-z13-1: the more we learn about the early Universe, the more confusing it gets. "Following in the footsteps of the Hubble Space Telescope, it was clear Webb would be capable of finding ever more distant galaxies," explains astronomer Peter Jakobsen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "As demonstrated by the case of GS-z13-1, however, it was always going to be a surprise what it might reveal about the nature of the nascent stars and black holes that are formed at the brink of cosmic time." The research has been published in Nature. Did Life Ever Exist on Venus? Scientists Develop New Equation to Find Out. Giant 'Space Tornadoes' Discovered Raging in Milky Way's Turbulent Heart First-Ever Images of Neptune's Eerie Glow Finally Reveal Missing Aurora
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Signals give astronomers ‘unexpected' insight into early galaxy formation
Astronomers have detected signals from a momentous event in the early universe in which a dense fog that cloaked the first stars began to lift, marking the end of the cosmic dark ages. Until now, the exact timing and nature of this critical transition has remained shrouded in mystery. The latest images, from the James Webb space telescope, reveal a galaxy dated to just 330m years after the big bang that appears to have cleared its surrounding fog. 'We could think of the early universe as shrouded with a thick fog that would make it exceedingly difficult to find even powerful lighthouses peeking through, yet here we see the beam of light from this galaxy piercing the veil,' said Dr Kevin Hainline, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and co-author of the findings. The observations are considered significant because they put a very early timestamp on the transition that saw the universe become transparent, allowing high energy starlight to travel freely across space for the first time. 'It is one of the key moments in the lifetime of the universe,' said Prof Roberto Maiolino, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge and a team member. Shortly after the big bang, the universe was filled with neutral hydrogen gas that absorbed almost all ultraviolet light emitted by the first stars (visible light would have escaped). As the earliest galaxies grew in size and radiated more powerful energy, they began to burn away the fog in their local area by splitting (ionising) hydrogen atoms into free floating protons and electrons that were no longer able to efficiently absorb light. For the first time, high energy starlight could travel freely, initially through bubbles of plasma surrounding the largest galaxies and eventually, as these bubbles grew and merged, across the entire cosmos. Astronomers agree that this process, known as the epoch of reionization, was complete by approximately 1bn years after the big bang. The latest observations reveal a clear signature of UV light being emitted from the GS-z13-1 galaxy. This suggests the galaxy must have been surrounded by a plasma bubble at least 650,000 light years across, the astronomers estimate. Beyond that distance, UV light would have been red-shifted into the visible light range that is less likely to be captured by hydrogen gas. 'GS-z13-1 is seen when the universe was only 330m years old, yet it shows a surprisingly clear, telltale signature … that can only be seen once the surrounding fog has fully lifted,' said Maiolino. 'This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise.' The strength of the signal suggests that the early galaxy may have contained gigantic stars, up to 300 times the mass of our own sun, and 15 times as hot. 'We're seeing such a strong feature that the intrinsic strength of the [radiation] should be enormous,' said Joris Witstok of the University of Copenhagen and first author. 'The large bubble of ionised hydrogen surrounding this galaxy might have been created by a peculiar population of stars – much more massive, hotter and more luminous than stars formed at later epochs, and possibly representative of the first generation of stars.' Dr Emma Chapman, an astrophysicist at the University of Nottingham who was not involved in the observations, said: 'This James Webb space telescope observation of a single, faint galaxy living through the epoch of reionization is a defining moment of the search, like finding the first buried arrowhead on an ancient battlefield. We need many more observations to truly understand how the battle for the ionization of the universe progressed, but we can now go on digging knowing we are in the right place and time.' The findings are published in the journal Nature.
