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Astronomers find another record-setting most distant galaxy

The uncertainty of science: Using the Webb Space Telescope, astonomers have identified another record-setting most distant galaxy, believed to exist only 300 million years after the Big Bang and once again far more massive and developed than expected that early in the universe.

The galaxy was actually one of two very early galaxies identified that lie close to each other on the sky but are not linked in any way.

The two record-breaking galaxies are called JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1, the former being the more distant of the two. In addition to being the new distance record holder, JADES-GS-z14-0 is remarkable for how big and bright it is. “The size of the galaxy clearly proves that most of the light is being produced by large numbers of young stars,” said Eisenstein, a Harvard professor and chair of the astronomy department, “rather than material falling onto a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s center, which would appear much smaller.”

The combination of the extreme brightness and the fact that young stars are fueling this high luminosity makes JADES-GS-z14-0 the most striking evidence yet found for the rapid formation of large, massive galaxies in the early Universe.

All the early galaxies that Webb has found so far have been far more massive and developed than cosmologists had predicted. The expectation had been that there wouldn’t have been enough time after the Big Bang for such galaxies to develop. Yet they have, suggesting something is not right with our theories about the beginning of the universe.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • wayne

    I’ll drop this in here– very good. With references to the previous record holder at a redshift of 11.

    How Far Away Is It – 16 – The Cosmos
    David Butler 92021)
    https://youtu.be/tDZZEaqQPNY

  • sippin_bourbon

    I will be honest, I have never been a fan of the Big Bang theory.
    But this certainly seems to throw more questions at it.
    The question is, how many more of these types of finds (because it is not the first) will they try to wrench into the theory before they decide that the theory needs to be tossed out?

  • pawn

    SB,

    The BB will hold sway until another theory can displace it.

    The BB has been “wrong” many times before and modifications have been made to make it right. It still may be considered valid with additional adjustments to incorporate the new observations. If it cannot be adjusted and the observation holds true then it just gives impetus to another theory being possible but someone has to come up with it and incorporate all the knowledge and predications the BB currently covers.

    This is a big effort.

    The more you look, the more you see.

    https://tinyurl.com/4ppneyta

  • Mike Borgelt

    “Adjustments” plucked from somebody’s nether regions. Dark matter, dark energy, the only evidence for which is models. Early “inflation” in the Big Bang. Never did like it. Mike McCulloch’s QI makes more sense. https://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/

  • Ed Earle

    There are many holes in the BB theory. Besides the inflationary period, my biggest peeve relates to Time. If there is nothing, and then there is a whole lot of something, obviously something changed. Did Time exist in the “before” state? If there were no time, then nothing could happen. Everything would be frozen in stasis, or rather, Nothing would be frozen in stasis. I guess I should switch to decaf.

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