By now, almost everyone has seen the images from JWST’s first launch and marveled at these incredible views of the infrared universe for which the telescope was launched. The view of SMACS 0723 seen above illustrates the promise JWST holds. While there are many more early release images in the observing pipeline, we are starting to see the first research papers emerge. As expected, studies of distant galaxies are already grabbing headlines.
Wow, these finds are amazing! In recent days, websites and social media have been alive with images of a blob that is actually one of the oldest (earliest) galaxies ever seen. It is one of two, GL-z11 and GL-z13, that show us what they were like when the Universe was extremely young, about 300 million years after the Big Bang. When confirmed, they will mark a milestone in the studies of the Children’s Universe.
A look back in time and across space
Thanks to JWST and its high-resolution infrared instruments, astronomers can now observe the earliest epochs of cosmic history. Of course, the Hubble Space Telescope paved the way for this. For example, it provided the first look at the galaxy GNz11. Now, JWST is following up with a study of this galaxy and the discovery of another called GL-z13.
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GL-z13 is an early universe galaxy that appears as seen by JWST when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. Courtesy: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
These galaxies exist at a time that has so far been largely unexplored. Thus, a consortium of astronomers (led by Rohan P. Naidu of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian) proposed a JWST search for luminous galaxies in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang (at a shift of at the red of z > 10) . This work was done as part of the JWST Early Release program and exploration will likely continue for quite some time.
The research revealed that the two galaxies, GL-z11 and GL-z13, are likely galaxies of billions of solar masses. This is quite remarkable given their presence in the early Universe, especially since the first stars began to form around one to two hundred million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies are also bright enough that astronomers will be able to do follow-up spectrographic studies to determine more. Computer modeling indicates that these galaxies are somewhat small and may have disks in place, even at their young ages.
Based on early observations with JWST, it seems very likely that GL-z11 and GL-z13 have a population of young, hot stars (which would be very bright in ultraviolet light) and that each galaxy could be bursting with formation regions stellar . These stars and regions should be very good candidates for follow-up observations using JWST’s near-infrared spectrograph.
Are there more of these galaxies out there?
An exciting implication of this discovery is that these two distant galaxies in the early Universe may be just the tip of the iceberg. There could be many more in every direction JWST is looking. Remember the excitement when the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) performed its first deep-field survey? He pointed to what appeared to be a rather empty area of the sky, looking to see what was “out there”. The observations revealed distant galaxies as far as HST could see. Other deep-field observations in other directions of the sky gave the same result. It turns out that the universe is galaxies all the way.
So if these two galaxy discoveries are any indication, JWST is poised to explode our view of the infant Universe in the same way that HST did with its deep-field observations. Of course, astronomers will work to confirm these galaxies spectroscopically. And, if what they promise plays out in the sky, with the discovery of at least two (and perhaps more) galaxies at redshifts between 11 and 13 in every direction JWST looks, we’re in for some interesting times. At the very least, this incredible infrared observatory is pushing the cosmic frontier much further, looking beyond what we currently know. In the very near future, it could look right up to the edge of the Big Bang itself. Stay tuned!
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Two remarkably bright galaxy candidates az ~ 11-13 revealed by JWST
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