A mysterious galaxy. Emits light with a special wavelength

One of the key scientific goals of the James Webb (JWST) space telescope (JWST) is to study the beginnings of the universe more precisely than it has ever been – remind specialists of the European Space Agency. I am talking about the time when the first was formed galaxies. The extraordinary high sensitivity of the infrared light telescope is of fundamental importance in this respect. This opens up new possibilities of studying how these galaxies were created and how they influenced the universe.

The telescope has just observed an extremely distant Jades-GS-Z13-1 galaxy, observed in just 330 million years after a great explosion. As a reminder – the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Scientists surprised something very much. It is a clear light emission of a special wavelength of light, known as Liman-α emission, for which hydrogen atoms are responsible. The emission turned out to be much stronger than – as it was thought – it was possible at such an early stage of the development of the universe. “The early universe was shrouded in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen,” says Roberto Maiolino from the University of Cambridge and University College London. – Most of this fog disappeared in a process called regionalization, which ended about a billion years after a great explosion. GS-Z13-1 was observed when the universe was only 330 million years old, and yet it shows a surprisingly clear, characteristic Liman-α emission signal. Meanwhile, it can only be seen when the fog drops completely. This result was completely unexpected, looking from the point of view of the theory of early formation of galaxies, and really surprised astronomers – he added.

The discovery of Liman -α radiation from this galaxy is important for understanding the early universe – scientists emphasize. The source of detected radiation is not yet known. Researchers speculate that it may be the ionized hydrogen surrounding the galaxy produced by the population of unusual, very massive, hot and bright stars. They could even be typical for this period. Another solution may be the active center of the galaxy, powered by supermassive black holes. – It was clear that Webb, following in the footsteps of Hubble's space telescope, would be able to discover more and more distant galaxies. However, as the case of GS-Z13-1 shows, it was always to be a surprise what will reveal about the nature of the nascent stars and black holes arising on the verge of cosmic time-notes Peter Jakobsen from the University of Copenhagen.