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JWST Images Challenge Galaxy Formation Theories

New JWST images allow astronomers to see further back into the universe's distant past than ever before. Learn how these discoveries could upend our models of the early universe.

By Conor Feehly
May 16, 2023 6:00 PM
Webbs First Deep Field
This image taken by the JWST — its first full-color capture — shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. SMACS 0723 is gravitationally lensing numerous other galaxies far behind it, providing the deepest and sharpest image of the distant universe ever observed in infrared. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

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For almost 100 years, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. Galaxies are moving away from us, and the further away a galaxy is, the faster it's receding. This fact led cosmologists to devise the Big Bang theory; if you rewind the current expansion of the universe back in time, eventually you get to a stage where everything was condensed into a single point — the singularity — roughly 13.8 billion years ago.

Because it takes time for light to travel through space, the further away we look, the further back in time we are looking, too. Thanks to the help of the now-operational James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers are now able to look back farther than ever before.

NASA Discovers 6 Galaxies

A swath of sky measuring 2% of the area covered by the full moon was imaged with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Rolf A. Jansen (ASU), Jake Summers (ASU), Rosalia O'Brien (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Aaron Robotham (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Christopher Willmer (University of Arizona), JWST PEARLS Team)

Using data from the JWST's infrared instruments, astronomers have spotted what appear to be six massive galaxies from the universe's infancy, according to a study published in Nature in February. These colossal cosmic entities, if confirmed, could reshape how we think about the origins of our universe.

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