{"id":772848,"date":"2023-11-13T15:12:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=772848"},"modified":"2023-11-13T15:12:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:12:58","slug":"jwst-should-soon-glimpse-the-very-first-stars-born-after-the-big-bang-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=772848","title":{"rendered":"JWST should soon glimpse the very first stars born after the big bang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"article-image-inline ArticleImage\" data-method=\"caption-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImage__Wrapper\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of actively forming stars like this pair, known as Herbig-Haro 46\/47, as well as seeing stars from near the cosmic dawn<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">STScI Copyright: NASA, ESA, CSA\/STScI<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>We are tantalisingly close to seeing the beginning of the cosmic dawn, the time when the first stars and galaxies formed, with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the last 12 months, we\u2019ve made more progress probably than within the last 20 years, because it\u2019s such a powerful telescope,\u201d says astrophysicist Richard Ellis at University College London.<\/p>\n<p>\n    <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Richard Ellis: The search for a cosmic dawn\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LqauyCJ0iM4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n    <\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>Ellis spoke to a crowd at New Scientist Live at the ExCeL Centre in London on 7 October about the latest findings from JWST, which has been operational since 2022 and is still producing new science at a tremendous rate. \u201cIt\u2019s a talk I couldn\u2019t have given even six months ago,\u201d he tells <em>New Scientist<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the most striking results have come from observations of the most distant galaxies that we can see, which correspond to a time just a few hundred million years after the universe began. These galaxies appear to be more luminous than theorists predicted, suggesting that we have probed back to an era when the physical conditions of how gas is converted to stars might be quite different.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re systematically brighter by factors of three to five, which may not sound a lot, but <span class=\"js-content-prompt-opportunity\"\/> if we go to later times when the universe is older, these theoretical models match the data extremely well,\u201d says Ellis. It seems that when we use the JWST to look beyond what the Hubble Space Telescope can see, further back in time to earlier galaxies just 400 million years after the big bang, we find that something is different, he says.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few explanations as to why this is happening, such as early stars being systematically more massive than those we see today and therefore giving off more light, or early galaxies forming their stars more quickly than we expect.<\/p>\n<p>If either scenario, or a combination of them, is true, seeing these different conditions means we could be close to \u201ccosmic dawn\u201d, says Ellis. \u201cWe\u2019re not in a cosmological crisis. We\u2019re not at the point of giving up the cold dark matter view or abandoning the big bang.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"article-image-inline ArticleImage\" data-method=\"caption-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImage__Wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=100 100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=249 249w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/04182209\/SEI_174409637.jpg?width=900 900w\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"image lazyload size-full wp-image-2396028 ReplaceImageLazyload\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1130px) 900px, (min-width: 1025px) 900, (min-width: 768px) calc(100vw - 30px), calc(100vw - 30px)\" alt=\"Richard Ellis\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" data-credit=\"Richard Ellis\" data-caption=\"Richard Ellis spoke at New Scientist Live on 7 October&#10;\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">Richard Ellis spoke at New Scientist Live on 7 October<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">Richard Ellis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The chemical composition of these galaxies also suggests that we are getting close to observing objects from the beginning of the cosmic dawn. The first stars should be almost entirely made up of hydrogen and helium; it is only later in their lives that they produce heavier elements.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the earliest stars we have seen, \u201cwe can calculate the oxygen, carbon and nitrogen abundance, compared to the sun, and we\u2019re now down to between 1 and 4 per cent at these early times,\u201d says Ellis. \u201cSo clearly the universe is heading towards a pristine state in the most distant galaxies that we see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because early stars can be born and die in just 5 million years, and can pollute nearby stars with the heavier elements they have made, there is an exceptionally narrow window to try to observe them in an immaculate state. If you find a pristine star, it means there hasn\u2019t been enough time for the stars to mix and it must be from very early in the galaxy.<\/p>\n<p>One way to find this window is by systematically measuring a large sample of galaxies and observing them with JWST to analyse their chemical make-up. This will take a large amount of observation time, but it is possible that we will see results in the next few years, says Ellis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ArticleCorrections\">\n<div class=\"ArticleCorrections__Correction\">\n<h4 class=\"ArticleCorrections__CorrectionDate\">Article amended on 10 October 2023<\/h4>\n<p>We have corrected what Richard Ellis said will need to happen to the standard model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"ArticleTopics\">\n<p class=\"ArticleTopics__Heading\">Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2396025-jwst-should-soon-glimpse-the-very-first-stars-born-after-the-big-bang\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=space&#038;rand=772163\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of actively forming stars like this pair, known as Herbig-Haro 46\/47, as well as seeing stars from near the cosmic dawn STScI&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-scientist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/772849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}