The James Webb Space Telescope Might Have Spotted the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Seen

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The James Webb Space Telescope launched into orbit seven months ago and
is now peering deep into space. Last week, two independent teams of
scientists announced that the telescope might have spotted a galaxy
from 13.5 billion years ago, just 300 million years after the Big Bang,
reports New Scientist’s Jonathan O’Callaghan. If the findings are
confirmed, the galaxy would be the most distant ever detected.

Webb’s ultra-powerful instruments can detect light that has traveled
from distant parts of the universe. Since this light had such a long
journey, it’s very old light, and scientists want to use it to learn
more about the early days of the universe.

“We have, for all of human history, been bathed in light reaching us
from such distant galaxies, born when the universe was just a few
hundred million years old,” Chris Lintott, an astronomer at Oxford
University who studies galaxy formation and was not involved in the new
research, tells The Atlantic’s Marina Koren. “But only now have we
built something capable of capturing it.”

The findings have not been published yet, so they still need to undergo
peer review, notes The Atlantic. Plus, the researchers need more data
to confirm the results. The telescope’s instruments are also still
being calibrated, per Vice’s Becky Ferreira, which could influence the
dating process.
(continue)...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-james-webb-space-telescope-might-have-spotted-the-most-distant-galaxy-ever-seen-180980478/

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