{"id":794565,"date":"2025-03-20T09:09:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794565"},"modified":"2025-03-20T09:09:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:09:04","slug":"most-distant-known-galaxy-is-mature-in-a-baby-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794565","title":{"rendered":"Most distant known galaxy is mature in a baby universe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Surprise! More Evidence We&#039;re Wrong About the Early Universe\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7xGeUfsq6ac?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/><em>EarthSky\u2019s Will Triggs explains what\u2019s so surprising about the discovery of oxygen in the most distant known galaxy.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<h3>Most distant known galaxy is mature in a baby universe<\/h3>\n<p>In 2024, the James Webb Space Telescope spotted the most distant galaxy we\u2019ve yet seen. It\u2019s named JADES-GS-z14-0, and we\u2019re seeing it back in the <em>Cosmic Dawn<\/em>, when the universe was just 2% of its current age. And on March 20, 2025, two teams of astronomers said they\u2019ve detected oxygen in this galaxy. This was a surprise, because \u2013 based on our current understanding of how the universe developed \u2013 stars shouldn\u2019t have been evolved enough to produce heavy elements like oxygen that early in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>One team published their peer-reviewed results in the journal <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics<\/em> on March 20, 2025. And the other team published their peer-reviewed results on the same day in <em>The Astrophysical Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_505097\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-505097\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-505097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View larger. | This is the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. It\u2019s a tiny dot in the Fornax constellation. We are seeing it when the universe was only 300 million years old, or 2% of its current age. The large view is from the James Webb Space Telescope, and the inset is from the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Two research teams recently said they\u2019ve discovered a surprise in this galaxy: oxygen. So the galaxy evolved much quicker in the infant universe than astronomers thought was possible. Image via ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)\/ S. Carniani et al.\/ S. Schouws et al\/ JWST: NASA\/ ESA\/ CSA\/ STScI\/ Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz)\/ Ben Johnson (CfA)\/ Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge)\/ Phill Cargile (CfA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Early universe, older stars<\/h3>\n<p>We see JADES-GS-z14-0 as it was 13.4 billion years ago, because that\u2019s how long its light takes to reach us. The universe itself was just around 300 million years old at that time, or about 2% of its current age. This is a time period we call the Cosmic Dawn.<\/p>\n<p>But the astronomers were surprised to find oxygen in this galaxy. Heavier elements, like oxygen, spread throughout a galaxy after the star dies and blows itself apart. So for stars to have spread oxygen in the galaxy, there must have already been a generation of them that lived and died. Young stars are made mostly of hydrogen and helium, so that\u2019s what we\u2019d expect to find in a galaxy at this time. Instead, the new studies show that JADES-GS-z14-0 has around 10 times more heavy elements than they thought possible. Therefore, astronomers have to rethink their ideas of how stars and galaxies lived and died in the early universe.<\/p>\n<p>Lead author of the paper in the <em>The Astrophysical Journal<\/em>, Sander Schouws of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It is like finding an adolescent where you would only expect babies. The results show the galaxy has formed very rapidly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than we expected.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_505103\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-505103\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/03\/oxygen-spike-in-oldest-known-galaxy-ESO-e1742310736351.jpg\" alt=\"Field of galaxies with a bluish one inset plus 2 graphs showing a spike in yellow.\" width=\"800\" height=\"375\" class=\"size-full wp-image-505103\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-505103\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The two new studies found a spike of oxygen in the spectra of the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. Image via ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)\/ S. Carniani et al.\/ S. Schouws et al\/ JWST: NASA\/ ESA\/ CSA\/ STScI\/ Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz)\/ Ben Johnson (CfA)\/ Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge)\/ Phill Cargile (CfA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>A surprise finding<\/h3>\n<p>Lead author of the paper in the journal <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics<\/em>, Stefano Carniani of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I was astonished by the unexpected results because they opened a new view on the first phases of galaxy evolution. The evidence that a galaxy is already mature in the infant universe raises questions about when and how galaxies formed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In addition, the detection of oxygen allows astronomers to make precise distance measurements for the galaxy. Co-author of the paper in <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics<\/em>, Eleonora Parlanti of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, said: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The ALMA detection offers an extraordinarily precise measurement of the galaxy\u2019s distance down to an uncertainty of just 0.005%. This level of precision \u2014 analogous to being accurate within 5 cm over a distance of 1 km \u2014 helps refine our understanding of distant galaxy properties.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_505111\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-505111\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2025\/03\/Artists-impression-of-JADES-galaxy-ESO-e1742314171191.jpg\" alt=\"Dark dust and gas lane cutting in front of a glow with a few bright stars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"478\" class=\"size-full wp-image-505111\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-505111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This artist\u2019s concept shows what the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, might look like. Early galaxies were clumpy and irregular. Image via ESO\/ M. Kornmesser.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bottom line: Astronomers have discovered oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. The finding was a surprise, because it means the stars within are older than we would expect in the early universe.<\/p>\n<p>Source: The eventful life of a luminous galaxy at z = 14: metal enrichment, feedback, and low gas fraction?<\/p>\n<p>Source: Detection of [OIII]88\u00b5m in JADES-GS-z14-0 at z=14.1793<\/p>\n<p>Via ESO<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"cp-load-after-post\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"post-author\">\n<h4>Kelly Kizer Whitt<\/h4>\n<p>                    View Articles\n                  <\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-tags\">\n<h6 data-udy-fe=\"text_7c58270d\">About the Author:<\/h6>\n<p>Kelly Kizer Whitt &#8211; EarthSky\u2019s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube &#8211; writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She&#8217;s been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children&#8217;s picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/space\/most-distant-known-galaxy-surprise-oxygen\/?rand=772280\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EarthSky\u2019s Will Triggs explains what\u2019s so surprising about the discovery of oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Most distant known galaxy is mature in a baby universe In 2024,&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":794566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-sky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794565","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=794565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/794566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}