James Webb Space Telescope Archives

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

Three More “Galactic Monster” Ultra-Massive Galaxies Found

These three "red monster" galaxies are extremely massive and dusty galaxies in the first billion years after the Big Bang. © NASA/CSA/ESA, M. Xiao & P. A. Oesch (University of Geneva), G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute), Dawn JWST Archive.

One of the surprise findings with the James Webb Space Telescope is the discovery of massive galaxies in the early Universe. The expectations were that only young, small, baby galaxies would exist within the first billion years after the Big Bang. But some of the newly found galaxies appear to be as large and as mature as galaxies that we see today.

Three more of these “monster” galaxies have now been found, and they have a similar mass to our own Milky Way. These galaxies are forming stars nearly twice as efficiently as galaxies that were formed later on in the Universe. Although they’re still within standard theories of cosmology, researchers say they demonstrate how much needs to be learned about the early Universe.

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 by Mark Thompson

James Webb Confirms Hubble’s Calculation of Hubble’s Constant

Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope

We have been spoiled over recent years with first the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and then the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST.) Both have opened our eyes on the Universe and made amazing discoveries. One subject that has received attention from both is the derivation of the Hubble Constant – a constant relating the velocity of remote galaxies and their distances. A recent paper announces that JWST has just validated the results of previous studies by the Hubble Space Telescope to accurately measure its value.

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Why are Some Quasars So Lonely?

This image, taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, shows an ancient quasar (circled in red) with fewer than expected neighboring galaxies (bright spheres), challenging physicists’ understanding of how the first quasars and supermassive black holes formed. Credits:Credit: Christina Eilers/EIGER team

At the centre of most galaxies are supermassive black holes. When they are ‘feeding’ they blast out jets of material with associated radiation that can outshine the rest of the galaxy. These are known as quasars and they are usually found in regions where huge quantities of gas exist. However, a recent study found a higher than expected number of quasars that are alone in the Universe. These loners are not surrounded by galaxies nor a supply of gas. The question therefore remains, how are they shining so brightly.

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Early Black Holes Fed 40x Faster than Should Be Possible

This artist’s illustration shows a red, early-Universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA's JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation NOIRLab astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is accreting matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s ‘feast’ could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early Universe.

The theory goes that black holes accrete material, often from nearby stars. However the theory also suggests there is a limit to how big a black hole can grow due to accretion and certainly shouldn’t be as large as they are seen to be in the early Universe. Black holes it seems, are fighting back and don’t care about those limits! A recent study shows that supermassive black holes are growing at rates that defy the limits of current theory. Astronomers just need to figure out how they’re doing it!

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Allen Versfeld

Hubble and Webb are the Dream Team. Don't Break Them Up

Webb and Hubble's Views of Spiral Galaxy NGC 628 Image credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Global Science and Technology, Inc./Amy Moran

Many people think of the James Webb Space Telescope as a sort of Hubble 2. They understand that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has served us well but is now old, and overdue for replacement. NASA seems to agree, as they have not sent a maintenance mission in over fifteen years, and are already preparing to wind down operations. But a recent paper argues that this is a mistake. Despite its age, HST still performs extremely well and continues to produce an avalanche of valuable scientific results. And given that JWST was never designed as a replacement for HST — it is an infrared (IR) telescope) — we would best be served by operating both telescopes in tandem, to maximize coverage of all observations.

October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Webb Scans Vega for Planets

To northern sky watchers, Vega is a familiar sight in the summer sky. It’s one of the brightest stars in the sky and in 2013, astronomers detected a large ring of rocky debris surrounding the planet. The prospect of planets suddenly became a real possibility so astronomers turned the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the star. The hunt achieved 10 times the sensitivity of previous ground based searches but alas no planets were discovered.

October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Red Dwarf Stars Might Be Able to Hold Onto Their Atmospheres After All

This 2018 artist’s concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses and distances from the host star (far left). New research shows that while TRAPPIST-1b, second from the left, has no atmosphere, TRAPPIST-1e, third from the right, could have a long-term stable atmosphere.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Exoplanets are a fascinating aspect of the study of the Universe. TRAPPIST-1 is perhaps one of the most intriguing exoplanet systems discovered to date with no less than 7 Earth-sized worlds. They orbit a red dwarf star which can unfortunately be a little feisty, hurling catastrophic flares out into space. These flares could easily strip atmospheres away from the alien worlds rendering them uninhabitable. A new piece of research suggests this may not be true and that the rocky planets may be able to maintain a stable atmosphere after all.

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 by Matt Williams

Webb Finds Dozens of Supernovae Remnants in the Triangulum Galaxy

M33, the Triangulum Spiral Galaxy, seen here in a 4.3 hour exposure image. Astronomers used JWST to examine a section of its south spiral arm to search out and find nearly 800 newly forming stars. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.

Infrared astronomy has revealed so much about the Universe, ranging from protoplanetary disks and nebulae to brown dwarfs, aurorae, and volcanoes on together celestial bodies. Looking to the future, astronomers hope to conduct infrared studies of supernova remnants (SNRs), which will provide vital information about the physics of these explosions. While studies in the near-to-mid infrared (NIR-MIR) spectrum are expected to provide data on the atomic makeup of SNRs, mid-to-far IR (MIR-FIR) studies should provide a detailed look at heated dust grains they eject into the interstellar medium (ISM).

Unfortunately, these studies have been largely restricted to the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds due to the limits of previous IR observatories. However, these observational regimes are now accessible thanks to next-generation instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In a recent study, a team led by researchers from Ohio State University presented the first spatially resolved infrared images of supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Triangulum Galaxy (a.k.a. Messier 33). Their observations allowed them to acquire images of 43 SNRs, thanks to the unprecedented sensitivity and resolution of Webb’s IR instruments.

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Search for Exomoons is On

An artist's conception of a potentially-habitable exomoon. It seems reasonable that exoplanets have exomoons, and now we're going to look for them. Credit: NASA

Moons are the norm in our Solar System. The International Astronomical Union recognizes 288 planetary moons, and more keep being discovered. Saturn has a whopping 146 moons. Every planet except Mercury and Venus has moons, and their lack of moons is attributed to their small size and proximity to the Sun.

It seems reasonable that there are moons around exoplanets in other Solar Systems, and now we’re going to start looking for them with the James Webb Space Telescope.

October 13, 2024October 13, 2024 by Matt Williams

Webb Observations Shed New Light on Cosmic Reionization

A simulation of galaxies during the era of deionization in the early Universe. Credit: M. Alvarez, R. Kaehler, and T. AbelCredit: M. Alvarez, R. Kaehler, and T. Abel

The “Epoch of Reionization” was a critical period for cosmic evolution and has always fascinated and mystified astronomers. During this epoch, the first stars and galaxies formed and reionized the clouds of neutral hydrogen that permeated the Universe. This ended the Cosmic Dark Ages and led to the Universe becoming “transparent,” what astronomers refer to as “Cosmic Dawn.” According to our current cosmological models, reionization lasted from 380,000 to 1 billion years after the Big Bang. This is based on indirect evidence since astronomers have been unable to view the Epoch of Reionization directly.

Investigating this period was one of the main reasons for developing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which can pierce the veil of the “dark ages” using its powerful infrared optics. However, observations provided by Webb revealed that far more galaxies existed in the early Universe than previously expected. According to a recent study, this suggests that reionization may have happened more rapidly and ended at least 350 million years earlier than our models predict. Once again, the ability to peer into the early Universe has produced tensions with prevailing cosmological theories.