The Webb Space Telescope has been operating at full capacity for a week, and is already returning some of the highest quality images we’ve seen of the farthest reaches of space. Not only that, but the observatory also captured a snapshot of the oldest galaxy ever discovered.
In a study published Tuesday, researchers show that the GLASS-z13 galaxy is about 13.5 light-years away. Due to its remoteness, the Webb Space Telescope captured the light emanating from the galaxy as it appeared 300 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery of GLASS-z13 distinguishes it from the previous recorder, GN-Z11, which was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2016. GN-Z11 is 13.4 billion light-years away.
The galaxy, known as GLASS-z13, broke the record for the oldest observed galaxy nearly 100 million years ago! pic.twitter.com/IljhTPlZSw
– New World (@world news) 20 July 2022
The full study of the group can be found here.
“With the Webb telescope achieving better-than-expected image quality, early in its rollout, we intentionally defocused the vectors by a small amount to help ensure their performance requirements were met,” Web scientist Neil Rowlands He said on the NASA blog advance this month. “When this image was taken, I was thrilled to see all the detailed structures in these faint galaxies so clearly. Given what we now know is possible with wide-band deep images, perhaps such images, taken in parallel with other observations where possible It could be scientifically useful in the future.”
Around the same time, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson confirmed that the images being released to the public are the deepest look into space, far beyond what we’ve seen before.
“If you think about it, it’s far beyond what humanity has moved before,” Nelson said. “And we are just beginning to understand what Webb can and will do. It will explore objects in the solar system and the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether their atmospheres are similar to ours.”
.
[ad_2]
