NASA astronomers use a space telescope James Webb, found the second and fourth most distant galaxies ever discovered in history. It is located about 33 billion light-years from Earth, in a part of space known as the Pandora cluster.
The galaxies are named Uncover-z13 and Uncover-z12. Since they are about 33 billion light-years away, we are witnessing the past of these formations. The researchers estimate that the galaxies emitted the light detected by the Webb Telescope about 13.4 billion light-years ago.
Image: The Astrophysical Journal/Reproduction
At that time, the universe was about 330 million years old. Galaxies are currently 33 billion light-years away from us, due to the expansion of the universe over time.
“Previously discovered galaxies appeared [nas lentes do telescópio] Like a point […] “But one of them looks elongated, almost like a peanut, and the other looks like a thin ball,” Bingjie Wang, an expert who is part of the team that discovered the formations, said in a statement.
Galactic details
Researchers used computer models to uncover the properties of these first galaxies. As expected, the two galaxies had few metals in their composition, grew rapidly and formed stars.
About 33 billion light-years away, these incredibly distant galaxies help us learn how the first galaxies formed. The researchers described the results in a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
James Webb took deep-field images of the Pandora Collection in 2022. The images reveal more than 60,000 light sources.
These details were made possible by gravitational lensing caused by the cluster’s large mass. This enormous gravity acts as a natural magnification, acting like a cosmic magnifying glass thanks to supermassive objects, allowing distant objects to be observed.
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