The James Webb Space Telescope, has given astronomers the opportunity to look a little deeper into space with picture quality that we have never had before. The telescope successfully launched on December 25th, 2021. This telescope is working on studying the history of the Universe, letting astronomers dive deeper into the Big Bang, the formation of solar systems, and our own Solar System.
In October 2022, the James Webb Telescope uncovered a cluster of massive galaxies forming around a very red quasar. This red quasar exists in the early Universe which dates back to 11.5 billion years ago. A quasar is an object that is very luminous and can be found in the centers of many galaxies. Quasars are powered by gas that spirals at a very high velocity into an extremely large black hole.
The quasar that Webb discovered is one of the most powerful quasars that has been found. It was speculated that since the quasar was so powerful, it could cause galactic wind that pushes free gas and would be able to influence the future star formation. Webb has a Near Infrared Spectrograph, this was used to examine the quasar, galaxy, and the surroundings of them. From the spectroscopy, the astronomers were then able to understand the movements of winds and other things that were surrounding the quasars.
Since the quasar had so much power, astronomers thought the quasar’s host galaxy was merging with another object. After looking into this more, they found that there were three galaxies that were swirling around it. It was determined that there was a dense knot of galaxy formation. This discovery helps astronomers understand how galaxies in dense environments evolve.
The James Webb Telescope is going to be a great use for our future discoveries. We are in a very exciting time for astronomy!
Citations
“About Webb/NASA.” NASA, NASA, https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/index.html.
“Webb Uncovers Dense Cosmic Knot in the Early Universe.” ESA, https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_uncovers_dense_cosmic_knot_in_the_early_Universe.
This is a pretty cool discovery by the James Webb Telescope! I think the James Webb Telescope will not only be a great resource for astronomers to study Galaxies and the formation of the universe but it will also be vital in the discovery of exoplanets which could possibly lead to the discovery of life beyond Earth!
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