Tag Archive for 'Early Universe'

This Webb image shows I Zwicky 18, a blue compact dwarf galaxy some 59 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. A companion galaxy resides nearby to I Zwicky 18 can be seen at the bottom of the image. The companion may be interacting with the dwarf galaxy and may have triggered that galaxy’s recent star formation. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hirschauer et al.

Webb Images Extremely Metal-Poor, Star-Forming, Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy

Apr 3, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a spectacular image of I Zwicky 18 (I Zw 18 for short), the archetypal extremely...

Storey-Fisher et al. present the all-sky quasar catalog Quaia, that samples the largest comoving volume of any existing spectroscopic quasar sample. Image credit: Storey-Fisher et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad1328.

Astronomers Create Largest-Ever Map of Universe’s Quasars

Mar 19, 2024 by News Staff

The new map, dubbed Quaia, includes around 1,295,502 quasars from across the visible Universe and could help astronomers better understand the properties...

This two-part graphic shows evidence of a gaseous clump of helium in the halo surrounding galaxy GN-z11. In the top portion, at the far right, a small box identifies GN-z11 in a field of galaxies. The middle box shows a zoomed-in image of the galaxy. The box at the far left displays a map of the helium gas in the halo of GN-z11, including a clump that does not appear in the infrared colors shown in the middle panel. In the lower half of the graphic, a spectrum shows the distinct ‘fingerprint’ of helium in the halo. The full spectrum shows no evidence of other elements and so suggests that the helium clump must be fairly pristine, made of hydrogen and helium gas left over from the big bang, without much contamination from heavier elements produced by stars. Theory and simulations in the vicinity of particularly massive galaxies from these epochs predict that there should be pockets of pristine gas surviving in the halo, and these may collapse and form Population III star clusters. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Webb Detects Pristine Helium Clump in GN-z11’s Halo

Mar 5, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

GN-z11 is an exceptionally luminous galaxy that existed when our Universe was only 420 million years old, making it one of the earliest and most distant...

Astronomers estimate 50,000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this Webb image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / I. Labbe, Swinburne University of Technology / R. Bezanson, University of Pittsburgh / A. Pagan, STScI.

Photons from Dwarf Galaxies Reionized Early Universe, New Research Suggests

Feb 29, 2024 by News Staff

The reionization of the Universe occurred some 500 to 900 million years after the Big Bang. It represents the transformation of neutral hydrogen into ionized...

Composite-color image of A2744-QSO1. Image credit: Furtak et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07184-8.

Webb Finds Surprisingly Massive Black Hole in Early Universe

Feb 27, 2024 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have observed an extremely red, quasar-like object — named A2744-QSO1 — behind...

This image of the exceptional quasar J0529-4351 is from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey DR10; a neighboring M star appears in red. Image credit: Wolf et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02195-x.

Astronomers Discover Most Luminous Quasar Ever Observed

Feb 21, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

The black hole in the newly-discovered quasar SMSS J052915.80-435152.0 (hereafter called J0529-4351) accretes around one solar mass per day onto an existing...

This Webb image shows ZF-UDS-7329, a rare massive galaxy that formed very early in the Universe. Image credit: Glazebrook et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07191-9.

Webb Discovers Massive Quiescent Galaxy with Old Stellar Population in Early Universe

Feb 16, 2024 by News Staff

The formation of galaxies by gradual hierarchical co-assembly of baryons and cold dark matter halos is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Which Came First: Supermassive Black Holes or Galaxies? New Insights from Webb

Feb 6, 2024 by News Staff

New insights from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope upend theories of how black holes shape the cosmos, challenging classical understanding that...

This Hubble image shows N79, a star-forming region located 163,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Meixner.

Webb Looks at Massive Star-Forming Complex in Large Magellanic Cloud

Jan 23, 2024 by News Staff

Using the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a spectacular image of N79, a region...

GN-z11. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Webb Detects Oldest Black Hole Yet Known

Jan 18, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected a small and vigorous black hole in GN-z11, an exceptionally luminous galaxy...

This Hubble image shows various distant galaxies in the constellation of Cetus: most of the galaxies are very small, but there are a few larger galaxies and some stars where detail can be made out; in the center there is an elliptical galaxy with a brightly glowing core and a broad disk; a reddish, warped ring of light, thicker at one side, surrounds its core; a small galaxy intersects the ring as a bright dot. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / H. Nayyeri / L. Marchetti / J. Lowenthal.

Hubble Sees Myriads of Distant Galaxies in Cetus

Jan 1, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new infrared image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows dozens of galaxies — including...

This simulation illustrates a galaxy disk being disturbed, leading to the propagation of a seismic ripple throughout the disk. Image credit: Bland-Hawthorn & Tepper-Garcia, University of Sydney.

ALMA Detects Seismic Ripples in Disk of Ancient Barred Spiral Galaxy

Dec 26, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have observed a disk bending wave in BRI 1335-0417, the oldest known spiral galaxy...

These NIRCam/Webb images show the multiply-imaged supernova Encore in the distant galaxy MRG-M0138. Two images of Encore (circled) are seen here, but an additional supernova image is expected to become visible around 2035. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Justin Pierel, STScI / Andrew Newman, Carnegie Institution for Science.

Webb Discovers Gravitationally-Lensed Supernova 10 Billion Light-Years from Earth

Dec 22, 2023 by News Staff

A Type Ia supernova named Encore is the second multiply-imaged supernova detected in MRG-M0138, a galaxy around 10 billion light-years away in the constellation...

The merger of two neutron stars is among the leading candidate sites for synthesizing the heavier elements on the periodic table through the r-process. Image credit: Matthew Mumpower, Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Ancient Stars were Capable of Producing Elements with Atomic Masses Greater than 260, Scientists Say

Dec 11, 2023 by News Staff

The rapid neutron capture process, or the so-called r-process, occurs in neutron-rich environments such as neutron star mergers or certain types of supernovae....

This Webb image shows member galaxies of the galaxy cluster A2744-z7p9OD. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / T. Morishita, IPAC / A. Pagan, STScI.

Astronomers Detect Nickel and Other Unexpected Elements in Early Star-Forming Galaxies

Nov 23, 2023 by News Staff

Ancient starburst galaxies that formed 2-3 billion years after the Big Bang are unusually hot and contain unexpected elements, like nickel, according to...

Bogdán et al. and Goulding et al. combined data from Webb and Chandra to identify the growing black hole at the center of UHZ1. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / Bogdán et al. / ESA / CSA / STScI / L. Frattare / K. Arcand.

Growing Supermassive Black Hole Detected in Early Universe

Nov 7, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Observations of quasars reveal that many supermassive black holes were in place less than 700 million years after the Big Bang. However, the origin of...

Masses, sizes, and relative densities of objects in our Universe. Image credit: Charles H. Lineweaver & Vihan M. Patel, doi: 10.1119/5.0150209.

Astrophysicists Put All Objects in Universe into One Pedagogical Plot

Oct 19, 2023 by News Staff

In a new paper, astrophysicists from Australian National University present an overview of the thermal history of our Universe and the sequence of objects...

Anderson et al. show that antihydrogen atoms, released from magnetic confinement in the ALPHA-g apparatus, behave in a way consistent with gravitational attraction to the Earth. Image credit: Keyi ‘Onyx’ Li / U.S. National Science Foundation.

CERN Physicists Observe Influence of Gravity on Antimatter

Sep 29, 2023 by News Staff

Physicists from the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN’s Antimatter Factory have demonstrated the existence of gravity between antimatter and Earth, reaffirming...

An artist’s impression of Ho’oleilana. Image credit: Frédéric Durillon.

Enormous ‘Bubble’ of Galaxies Discovered in Nearby Universe

Sep 7, 2023 by News Staff

Named Ho’oleilana, the newly-discovered ‘bubble’ of galaxies is around one billion light-years across and is centered 820 million light-years away...

This image shows the orientation of the magnetic field in the distant galaxy 9io9, seen here when the Universe was only 20% of its current age -- the furthest ever detection of a galaxy’s magnetic field. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Geach et al.

ALMA Detects Galaxy’s Magnetic Field in Early Universe

Sep 6, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected linearly polarized thermal emission from dust grains in 9io9, a...

‹1 234 5 ›»