Since the James Webb Space Telescope’s launch in December 2021, it has made dozens of discoveries that have expanded our understanding of the universe as it was developing. Webb has the capacity to look 13.6 billion light years distant, meaning the light emitted from galaxies at that distance would be 13.6 billion years old. In a paper published on April 13, 2023 in Science, University of Minnesota researchers found a 13.3 billion years old galaxy that has a uniquely high star formation rate surface density. On April 17, the James Webb Discovery website published an image of two spiral galaxies colliding. On May 1, water vapor was detected in exoplanet GJ 486 b, possibly indicating a planetary atmosphere in unlikely conditions.
The Minnesota discovery is the furthest back in history we have been able to see, 510 million years after the Big Bang, when galaxies were starting to form. “We’ve never looked at galaxies when the universe was this young in this level of detail. The galaxy’s volume is roughly a millionth of the Milky Way’s, but we can see that it’s still forming the same numbers of stars each year,” says Patrick Kelly, senior author of the paper. Galaxies of this size are difficult to observe in great detail because of how small and faint they are, but galaxy clusters, like RX J2129.6+0005, can act as gravitational lenses which magnify and extend the limits of a telescope. This effect allowed researchers to use near-infrared imaging to identify the candidate galaxy, designated RX J2129-z95, and confirm it using near-infrared spectroscopy. Galaxies at this distance have not been studied before, but measurements show a very high star formation rate surface density compared to observed galaxies of similar sizes.
Arp 220 has been closely studied for over 50 years and the advanced infrared capabilities of Webb can reveal new details about the colliding galaxies, by looking through the dusty regions and intense light. Arp 220 is the nearest ultra-luminous infrared galaxy to Earth and has a luminosity of over a trillion suns, compared to the Milky Way’s 10 billion sun luminosity. This intense light and the 5,000-light-year dusty region the collision is located in make it difficult to image, though Webb’s infrared imaging is able to show the diffraction spikes emanating from the cores of the galaxies.
In the search for habitable planets, GJ 486 is an unlikely candidate due to its surface temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit, though Webb’s discovery of water vapor may indicate the presence of liquid water. Near-infrared spectroscopy signals can all but confirm the presence of water, though at the moment it is unclear whether the water vapor is from a potential atmosphere on the exoplanet or from starspots, cool regions on the red dwarf star that the planet orbits. There has not been any observed evidence of starspots yet and if an atmosphere was confirmed, it would be the first rocky exoplanet to sustain these conditions.
The Webb telescope is the most advanced telescope in orbit, with stunning images and exciting information being published multiple times a month. A full list of James Webb Telescope Discoveries can be found on their website.
