NASA鈥檚 Webb Sees Galaxy Mysteriously Clearing Fog of Early Universe

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, JADES Collaboration, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA), J. Witstok (University of Cambridge/University of Copenhagen), P. Jakobsen (University of Copenhagen), A. Pagan (STScI), M. Za

The incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed just 330 million years after the big bang, was initially discovered with deep imaging from NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope鈥檚 NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). Now, an international team of astronomers definitively has identified powerful hydrogen emission from this galaxy at an unexpectedly early period in the universe鈥檚 history. JADES-GS-z-13 has a redshift (z) of 13, which is an indication of its age and distance.

« NASA鈥檚 Webb Sees Galaxy Mysteriously Clearing Fog of Early Universe

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, JADES Collaboration, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA), J. Witstok (University of Cambridge/University of Copenhagen), P. Jakobsen (University of Copenhagen), A. Pagan (STScI), M. Za

This image shows the galaxy JADES GS-z13-1 (the red dot at center), imaged with NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope鈥檚 NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. These data from NIRCam allowed researchers to identify GS-z13-1 as an incredibly distant galaxy, and to put an estimate on its redshift value. Webb鈥檚 unique infrared sensitivity is necessary to observe galaxies at this extreme distance, whose light has been shifted into infrared wavelengths during its long journey across the cosmos.

« NASA鈥檚 Webb Sees Galaxy Mysteriously Clearing Fog of Early Universe

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, S. Carniani (Scuola Normale Superiore), P. Jakobsen (University of Copenhagen), J. Olmsted (STScI)

NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope has detected unexpected light from a distant galaxy. The galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed just 330 million years after the big bang (corresponding to a redshift of z=13.05), shows bright emission from hydrogen known as Lyman-alpha emission. This is surprising because that emission should have been absorbed by a dense fog of neutral hydrogen that suffused the early universe. In this graphic, the solid blue line shows the cleaned, averaged spectrum while the faint blue shows the error bars.

« NASA鈥檚 Webb Sees Galaxy Mysteriously Clearing Fog of Early Universe

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