The James Webb Space Telescope has found massive galaxies from the early universe, and they appear to have formed at a much faster rate than astronomers expected, according to a study published Wednesday.
This discovery, which needs to be proven by detailed studies, occurred 500 to 700 years after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, in a very distant universe.
James Webb, which entered service in July, discovered the region with his “Nircom” instrument, which monitors the infrared field, which is invisible to the naked eye and allows the telescope to observe the distant universe.
According to a study published in the journal “Nature,” the telescope has discovered six galaxies in the early stages of the universe that are much larger than scientists expected. The Hubble telescope had previously observed two of these six galaxies, but the images provided by the telescope were not clear because the light emitted from them was weak.
Image analyzes by James Webb show that six galaxies, called “candidates” at this stage, contain more stars than expected, while the number of stars reached in one of them, as the discovery must be confirmed by the spectroscopy technique. A hundred billion stars.
“This number of stars makes the galaxy similar to the Milky Way,” study lead author Ivo Lab told AFP, adding, “It’s crazy!”
Our galaxy took 13.8 billion years to form stars of this size, while the older galaxy formed the same size in 700 million years, “twenty times faster” than the Milky Way, says Lab, a researcher at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. .
The existence of ancient galaxies of this size conflicts with the current cosmological model, which seeks to understand the structure of the universe. “According to the prevailing theory, galaxies at that early age are very small and experience slow growth. They may have ten or a hundred times fewer stars than the Milky Way,” says the astrophysicist.
The current model is deteriorating.
The mysterious dark matter that fills the universe may be responsible for the galaxies that have been detected forming stars so quickly. Although scientists can’t observe dark matter, they know how it works and know that it plays an important role in the formation of galaxies.
“The dark matter clumps together to form a halo, which attracts gas from which stars are born,” Labey said. However, this process takes a long time.
According to David Elbas, an astrophysicist at the Atomic Energy Commission, the discovery of the six galaxies could be a sign that the early stages of the universe were “accelerated” to form stars “more than expected.”
And the scientist adds, “This can be explained by the expansion of the universe, which is increasing faster than we thought.”
According to David Elbas, this topic raises controversy among cosmologists, which makes James Webb’s discovery “very interesting and a new sign that the current cosmological model is deteriorating.”
The researcher points out that the European Space Telescope “Eucld”, which will be launched into space this summer in an attempt to uncover the secrets of dark matter, will contribute to clarifying this mystery.
Labe refers to the black swan theory, which suggests that an unexpected and unlikely event has a large impact. He says that “if one of the six galaxies is proven to be true, the theories about galaxies” will have to be revised.
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