The mysterious glow of galaxies at the dawn of the universe

The universe is vast and full of mysteries that have intrigued astronomers and scientists throughout time. One of the recent mysteries involves a discovery made by astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Scientists have observed massive galaxies that appear to have emerged just a few hundred billion years after the Big Bang. The data show that these galaxies had more mass than the Universe could offer at the time.

New research from a Northwestern University team aims to clarify this mystery. The main technique scientists use to estimate the mass of a galaxy is to analyze the amount of light it emits. Surprisingly, These relatively young, low-mass galaxies appeared as bright as galaxies with abundant stars..

The bright dawn of the universe

According to Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, senior author of the study, “the discovery of these galaxies was a big surprise because they much brighter than expected. Typically a galaxy is bright because it is large. However, since these galaxies were formed during intense cosmic motion, not enough time has passed since the Big Bang. “How can these huge galaxies form so quickly?”

Using state-of-the-art simulations, researchers have developed an intriguing theory: Despite being extremely small in size, galaxies can experience periodic, bright bursts of star formation. These intermittent explosions These galaxies are much brighter than expected due to their size at the time of the cosmic dawn. These bursts would be consistent with observations made using JWST.

Guochao Sun, who led the study, elaborated on the theory as follows: “The important thing is to regenerate a sufficient amount of light in a system in a short time. This may be because the system is very large or it produces a lot of light quickly. After all, a system does not need to be that large “If stars appear in explosions, they emit flashes of light. That’s why there are so many bright galaxies.”

JWST’s clarity is important for researchers to observe galaxies as they appear during the cosmic dawn. This period spanning a period between 100 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang, remained quite difficult for previous telescopes. But thanks to JWST’s advanced capabilities, researchers can now dig deeper and gain deeper insights.

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