An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy

The galaxies seen at the dawn of the universe appear to be the earliest known evidence of the regeneration of the universe. This is the time when the universe was first illuminated.

Following the Big Bang, the early universe was filled with hot hydrogen and helium gas scattering photons, making the universe somewhat opaque. Over the next hundred million years, when stars begin to shine, their light ionizes hydrogen and helium, allowing photons to flow freely and make the universe transparent, but the exact timing of this is uncertain.

Joris Wittk The University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues used the James Webbspace Telescope (JWST) to study a galaxy called Jades-GS-Z13-1-LA. The galaxy is found 330 million years after the Big Bang, making it one of the earliest known galaxies in the universe.

Ultraviolet light from the galaxy suggests it was surrounded by a bubble of about 200,000 light-years. This could be the result of that starlight interacting with the surrounding cosmic hydrogen. Seeing evidence of this early in the universe “is exceeding even our wildest expectations,” says Witstok.

Michele Trenti At the University of Melbourne, we agree that observation is consistent with the process of regeneration of the universe. “It’s amazing and exciting,” Trenty says. “I don’t think the ultraviolet rays emitted from this galaxy would reach JWST. We expected the cold neutral hydrogen gas we had hoped would have surrounded the galaxy.

The nature of the small galaxy itself is not entirely clear. Due to the large hot and young star population, or the powerful central black hole, it may be bright and shining. “This would be the earliest known evidence of the ultra-large black holes at the heart of the galaxy,” says Trenty.

Astronomers have seen other galaxies with similar bubbles around them, but Jades-GS-Z13-1-la is the earliest known example. “That’s a benchmark.” Richard Ellis University College London. “We say this galaxy must have been around for quite some time, and it’s a bit back to the beginning when the galaxy first came out of the darkness.”

JWST could only unearth the secrets of this galaxy by staring at it for a relatively long time. Witstok hopes that he may soon see other early evidence of the regeneration of the universe. “We have a few more candidates,” he says. “We might find more of it [back in time]Or, this is the most extreme. ”