Searching for ancient galaxies with the James Webb telescope: “The first chapter of the universe”

We expect galaxies to grow from small to large, and according to theory, this is quite gradual,” explains researcher Ivo Lappi, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia.” It takes some time before 100 billion stars are brought together. Collecting. ”

Children’s systems

The idea was that if they looked out into the early universe – the “nursery universe” – they would see very young galaxies. “What we found was something completely different!” says Laby enthusiastically. “We’ve seen very red, strange galaxies. It takes a lot of stars to generate that light. That means those galaxies are very massive. We see galaxies the same size as the Milky Way, which is already a very big galaxy.”

In addition, these children are not as big as the Milky Way, but they are compressed 30 times. “Very strange and exciting,” says Labey. “It undermines the models we normally use to explain the growth of stars and galaxies in the universe.” According to the astronomer, galaxies are so big that the question is whether there is enough gas in the universe for them to form at all. Then you get to the site .the great explosion theory. “It’s been around for 50 years and it’s well tested: You can’t just change that.”

Chapter one

Researchers are already facing many new questions. What follows is a long process: “We’re going to make detailed pictures of these galaxies: then you’ll see exactly what’s going on, but that’ll take another year. We’re looking forward to it! Then we’ll know exactly what’s forming that light whether it’s stars or something else.”

You may be wondering what would it matter to know what the nursery of the universe looked like millions of years ago, but Labbé has an answer. “After the Big Bang, there were no stars and galaxies; neither plants nor humans. The first galaxies and stars that eventually formed formed the particles of our bodies. This nursery is, in a sense, our own history. It is an origin story, almost sentimental in fact. The Story of Our History, Ch. The first of the universe.”