Observations with the Webb Space Telescope show that the universe was capable of producing extraordinarily bright galaxies at very early timeswith just under 3% of the current age.

The result of a new study suggests that these galaxies formed stars earlier and faster than theoretical models predict. The study, published in the journal Naturealso unmasks an unusual galaxy that mimics the emission of an ultra-distant galaxy.

During the first months of JWST’s scientific activity in 2022, the scientific team of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) program, a deep-field mapping using multiple space telescope instruments, discovered a surprisingly large number of galaxies in the very distant universedetails Europe Press.

Among them they found some of the oldest galaxies ever observed, which would have formed when the universe was less than 500 million years old. One of them, called CEERS-93316, appeared to be even more distant and brighter, which could set a new record for the earliest galaxy ever observed.

Now there’s a new study led by National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLAb) and performed with JWST’s powerful NIRSpec infrared spectrograph, re-observed several of these early bright galaxies and confirmed that two of them, nicknamed “Maisie’s Galaxy” and CEERS2_588, are exceptionally young and bright.

These galaxies formed only 390 and 410 million years after the Big Bang respectively, i.e. when the universe was less than 3% of its current age. Moreover, they are unexpectedly luminous, suggesting that they formed stars earlier and faster than theoretical models predict.

“What sets Maisie’s Galaxy and CEERS2_588 apart from the few other galaxies confirmed in the universe at the time is that they are brighter” said Pablo Arrabal Haro, a NOIRLAb researcher who completed his dissertation at the IAC (Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics) and first author of the paper. “Confirming two ultra-distant luminous galaxies strengthens the idea of ​​rapid galaxy growth in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang,” he added.

The science team not only confirmed the age of two of these first galaxies, It also unmasked the oldest so-called galaxy ever observed, CEERS-93316.

Although previously thought to have formed when the universe was only 240 million years old, it actually belongs to a much later time, when the universe was 1.2 billion years old. (JO)