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NASA captures first lights turning on in the universe

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, james webb space telescope, science, technology

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 NASA
 's
 James Webb
 Space Telescope (JWST) has captured the earliest evidence of light shining through the cosmos.


 An international team of researchers used JWST to observe an ancient galaxy that emitted light just 330 million years after the Big Bang,
 when a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas made it difficult for light to cut through the darkness
 .


 This galaxy, called
 JADES-GS-z13-1-LA
 , somehow managed to shine even though its light should have been completely absorbed by the dense fog.


 JADES is one of the most distant galaxies in the known universe. Its light had to travel nearly 13.5 billion light-years to reach JWST, which also means that this galaxy is almost as ancient as the universe itself.


 The farther out in space astronomers look using telescopes like JWST, the further back in time they're seeing, almost all the way to the Big Bang.


 What's more,
 JWST detected a Lyman-alpha emission
 from JADES, which is a specific, distinctly bright wavelength of light that is very easily absorbed by neutral hydrogen.


 The fact that the telescope spotted this emission means that the fog immediately surrounding the galaxy must dissipated, according to the researchers.


 This suggests JADES was actively clearing the neutral hydrogen gas away.

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 'This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise,' Roberto Maiolino, co-researcher and astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge and University College London, said in a
 statement
 .


 The universe began roughly 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. In its early years, it looked completely different than the shining, sparkling cosmos we see today.


 
 Beginning 400,000 years after the Big Bang and lasting hundreds of millions of years, the universe was in a period known as the 'dark ages' when no planets, stars, or galaxies existed.
 


 
 During this time, only a fog of hydrogen atoms floated around in the darkness.
 


 
 But around 680 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars and galaxies began to form.
 


 
 They released ultraviolet radiation into the darkness, initiating the disintegration of hydrogen atoms and progressively making the universe translucent to light.
 


 Over millions of additional years, an increasing number of stars came together and grouped into galaxies.


 
 By
 
 
 1.1 billion years following the Big Bang, the cosmos transformed from an opaque expanse of darkness into a clear, luminous universe.
 

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 However, upon examining the JADES galaxy with JWST’s imaging and spectroscopy tools, the scientists discovered that it originates from the midst of the cosmic dark ages.
 


 
 Back then, the neutral hydrogen gas would have been so dense that it effectively suffocated any light released by the earliest stars or galaxies.
 


 
 "We truly shouldn't have encountered a galaxy like this based on our current comprehension of how the universe has developed," stated Kevin Hainline, an astronomer from the University of Arizona and also a co-author, in the press release.
 


 
 "We might envision the early universe as being enveloped in a dense mist, making it extremely challenging to detect even strong beacons trying to shine through. However, what we observe here is the beam of light from this galaxy slicing through the haze," he explained.
 


 
 This intriguing spectral line holds significant implications for understanding when and how the universe underwent reionization.
 


 
 The group released their research in the periodical
 Nature
 .
 


 
 Currently, the researchers do not understand the mechanism or reason behind the emission of Lyman-alpha radiation from this galaxy.
 
 
 However, they do possess certain hypotheses.
 


 
 A potential explanation could be that JADES contains exceptionally massive, hot stars which are much more effective at generating ionizing radiation compared to an average star nowadays.
 


 
 In this scenario, these stars might have warmed the nearby gas to over fifteen times the temperature of the Sun's surface, leading to extraordinarily intense radiation emissions.
 


 A different hypothesis suggests that the JADES galaxy hosts an active supermassive black hole, with radiation from matter plunging into this black hole causing the surrounding gas to become ionized.


 The research team discovered some supporting evidence for this concept. They found that the measurements indicating the size of JADES suggest it is remarkably small—a trait typical of galaxies hosting black holes.


 Despite the manner in which the light from this distant ancient galaxy pierced through the obscurity of the early universe, obtaining these images provides insight into potentially the initial glow emitted by the earliest stars in our universe, according to the scientists.

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NASA captures first lights turning on in the universe

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, james webb space telescope, science, technology

READ MORE: Webb telescope captures images of galaxy that shouldn't exist NASA 's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured the earliest evidence of light shining through the co…

This new telescope lens could be a game-changer for space imagery

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, james webb space telescope, science, technology

Engineers and astronomers at the University of Utah have designed a unique new kind of telescope lens: a flat lens with microscopic etchings to refract light. If the concept can be scaled up, these lenses could one day replace the heavier, bulkier lenses and mirrors typically used in telescopes, particularly those of professional observatories on the ground and in . Down the line, they could also be implemented on amateur telescopes, the team says.


 "Our computational techniques suggested we could design multi-level diffractive flat lenses with large apertures that could focus light across the visible spectrum," Rajesh Menon, a Utah professor of engineering, said in a
 statement
 .


 There are two basic types of telescope: refractors and reflectors. A refractor uses lenses to refract light and bring it to a focus. Reflectors utilize at least two mirrors to reflect the light to a focal point. Because large lenses are heavy and expensive to make, larger telescopes tend to use mirrors (sometimes in combination with smaller lenses). Lenses can also suffer from a malaise known as chromatic aberration, in which different wavelengths of light are refracted to slightly different degrees so that different colors come to focus at different points, resulting in color fringing around objects. Optical technicians can alleviate this through the complex use of glass coatings and multiple lenses — though that adds cost and expense.

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 However, the days of bulky, expensive telescope lenses could soon be coming to an end thanks to the team's new flat lens measuring less than a millimeter thick. that has been developed by a team led by Apratim Majumder, who is a member of Menon's lab at Utah.


 "Our demonstration is a stepping stone towards creating very large aperture, lightweight flat lenses with the capability of capturing full-color images for use in air- and based telescopes,” Apratim Majumder, a member of Menon's lab at Utah and leader of the crew behind the new lens prototype, said in the statement.


 Majumder, Menon and their team designed a 100mm (4-inch) flat lens, where microscopic concentric rings are etched onto a glass substrate using a technique called "grayscale optical lithography," which is a variation of a method typically used for etching electronics onto a silicon wafer. Most of the half-millimeter thickness of the flat lens is the glass — the ringed grooves are just 2.4 microns deep.

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 The use of concentric rings on a flat lens isn't new — a precursor, called a Fresnel zone plate, tries to do the same trick but is unable to eradicate chromatic aberration. However, the Utah team's multilevel diffractive lens (MDL) is able to bring all the wavelengths of light for which it was designed to detect (400–800 nanometers, covering the range of visible light and into the near-infrared) to a focus at the same point, thanks to how the size of the rings and the spacing between affect how the incoming light is refracted. Because all the colors come to focus at the same point, there is no chromatic aberration.


 Back when the telescope was
 invented by Hans Lippershey
 in 1608, it was done so by experimenting with putting lenses together. Today, a telescope's optical design involves complex computer modelling and large amounts of data.

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 "Simulating the performance of these lenses over a very large bandwidth, from visible to near-infrared, involved solving complex computational problems involving very large datasets," said Majumder. "Once we optimized the design of the lens’ microstructures, the manufacturing process involved required very stringent process control and environmental stability."


 The resulting 100mm lens, which has a focal length of 200mm, was then tested on both the
 sun
 and the
 moon
 , successfully showing
 sunspots
 and (in an artificially color-enhanced image) accurate geological features on the lunar surface. The 100mm MDL weighs just 25 grams (0.88 oz), compared to the 211 grams (7.44 oz) of a similarly sized, commercially available 100mm lens that is 17mm thick at its curved center.


 The
 Hubble Telescope
 uses a 2.4-meter primary mirror with a total mass of 1,825 pounds (828 kilograms), and the
 James Webb Telescope
 incorporates 18 segments in its primary 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror in total weighing (on Earth) 1,555 pounds (705 kilograms). On
 Earth
 , individual telescope mirrors have an upper size limit of 26-33 feet (8–10 meters), beyond which gravity starts to cause them to sag. The development of a flat, lightweight lens could therefore transform telescopes, particularly for launches where mass is a key limiting factor for getting off the Earth.


 A description of the flat MDL lens was published on Feb. 3 in the journal
 Applied Physics Letters
 .

This new telescope lens could be a game-changer for space imagery

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, james webb space telescope, science, technology

Engineers and astronomers at the University of Utah have designed a unique new kind of telescope lens: a flat lens with microscopic etchings to refract light. If the concept can be scaled up, these …

Webb Telescope Unveils Baffling Galaxy Images That Challenge Our Understanding

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, astrophysics, galaxies, james webb space telescope

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 The James Webb Space Telescope
 has spotted a giant galaxy that shouldn't exist.


 Using this exceptionally powerful telescope, a team of researchers were able to peer back in time and observe this
 never-before-seen spiral galaxy
 , dubbed the Big Wheel, as it looked just two billion years after the Big Bang.


 The farther out in space astronomers look using telescopes like the
 James Webb
 , the further back in time they're seeing, almost all the way to the Big Bang itself.


 A two-billion-year-old galaxy is considered young on a cosmic scale, but the Big Wheel's size at that point in history suggested that it should have been much older.


 The researchers determined that this galaxy stretched nearly 98,000 light years across, roughly the same size as our much-older home galaxy,
 the Milky Way
 , is today.


 Based on experts' current understanding of the early universe, it would be highly unlikely for a galaxy to achieve the Big Wheel's size in just two billion years.


 Study co-author Themiya Nanayakkara, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, said: 'You have to remember that the Milky Way has had another 10 billion years or so to grow than the Big Wheel.'


 He and his colleagues concluded that the Big Wheel was the largest two-billion-year-old galaxy ever observed, and is likely much bigger than the Milky Way is today - roughly 10 billion years later.

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 This presents a puzzling question: how did this galaxy manage to grow so enormous in such a relatively short amount of time?


 'Finding one of these galaxies is not a problem for cosmological theories, because one could be an outlier, but if we keep finding more, then I think we may have to say 'Okay, our models might need some refining,'' Nanayakkara told
 New Scientist
 .


 But he has a theory that could explain how the Big Wheel managed to grow so rapidly without breaking the laws of the universe as we understand them.


 It posits that multiple galaxies collided and merged in quick succession to form one large spiral galaxy, accelerating the growth rate that usually results from the gradual gathering of gas and dust in space.


 This may have been made possible by the Big Wheel's unusually dense surroundings.


 It is located in a region of space where galaxies are packed tightly together, 10 times denser than typical areas of the universe, Nanayakkara wrote in an article for
 The Conversation
 .


 'This dense environment likely provided ideal conditions for the galaxy to grow quickly. It probably experienced mergers that were gentle enough to let the galaxy maintain its spiral disk shape,' he explained.

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 At the same time, 'the gas flowing into the galaxy must have aligned well with its rotation, allowing the disk to grow quickly without being disrupted. So, a perfect combination,' Nanayakkara added.


 He and his colleagues published their findings in the journal
 Nature Astronomy
 .


 Finding a galaxy like the Big Wheel was like finding a needle in a haystack. According to Nanayakkara, his team had lest than a two percent chance of discovering it.


 Now, the researchers will begin the hunt for more unusually large galaxies in an attempt to determine exactly how rare they are.


 If they aren't as uncommon as experts currently believe them to be, they may have to reevaluate everything they know about galaxy formation.

Read more

Webb Telescope Unveils Baffling Galaxy Images That Challenge Our Understanding

Unknown astronomers, astronomy, astrophysics, galaxies, james webb space telescope

READ MORE: NASA discovers 'super Earth' exoplanet just 20 light-years away The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a giant galaxy that shouldn't exist. Using this exceptionally po…

Could We Be Inside a Supermassive Black Hole? James Webb's Discoveries Spark New Cosmic Theories

Unknown astronomy, astrophysics, black holes, cosmology, james webb space telescope

<div class="section1">
 <div class="Normal">
 
 Scientists have long been intrigued by the secrets of the universe, and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided unprecedented information since it started observing deep space in mid-2022. A recent JWST discovery posed some interesting and surprising questions: Is it possible that our entire universe is contained within a black hole? The bold hypothesis can potentially explain a mysterious cosmic phenomenon seen in the rotation of far-off galaxies.
 
 
 <h2>
 James Webb Space Telescope uncovers surprising galaxy rotation pattern
 </h2>
 
 
 The JWST's observations of the distant galaxies disclosed an intriguing and mysterious pattern. Approximately two-thirds of the galaxies rotate clockwise, and the remaining third rotate counterclockwise. Scientists had predicted a more or less equal proportion, presuming that the rotational direction would be random. The uniformity hints at the presence of some force or structure underneath that might be affecting the galaxies' rotation on a cosmic scale.
 
 
 <img data-document-id="cms/api/amp/image/AA1B81pD" data-reference="image" src="https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1B81pD.jpg"/>
 
 
 This finding is based on observations by the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Kansas State University lead investigator Lior Shamir mentioned two potential explanations for this unexpected trend: either the universe itself was created with a rotational motion, or existing cosmological theory must be rethought or reconsidered.
 
 
 <h2>
 The discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope have ignited a novel theory about black holes in the cosmos.
 </h2>
 
 
 A proposal put forward long ago is what’s called black hole cosmology. According to this idea, our entire universe could potentially reside within a black hole, itself being an element of an even grander cosmic structure. Under this scenario, the event horizon—that critical boundary beyond which nothing escapes, not even light—would effectively mark the outer limit of our universe.
 
 
 Nikodem Popławski, a theoretical physicist and an ardent advocate of this idea, suggests that black holes could serve as origins for entirely new universes. According to his hypothesis, once matter gets drawn into a black hole, it behaves like a tightly wound spring which eventually snaps back, thus generating a fresh universe. He posits that this phenomenon might have triggered the Big Bang and led to the subsequent swift growth of our cosmos.
 
 
 Popławski elaborates on how a rotation within a black hole could influence the characteristics of the resulting universe. Should observations made by JWST provide indications of an apparent cosmic preferential spin, this would strongly support the black hole cosmology theory. In essence, if the cosmos consistently rotates, it would suggest that this rotational characteristic stems from the spin of the original black hole from which our universe emerged.
 
 
 <h2>
 The movement of the Milky Way and how it might affect the JWST's observations of distant galaxies.
 </h2>
 
 
 An alternate possible reason for the observed rotational patterns could relate to the movement of the Milky Way itself through space. Certain researchers suggest that the rotating nature of our galaxy might be altering the way JWST views distant galaxies receding from us. Should this be true, it may compel astrophysicists to reassess distance calculations across the cosmos and potentially resolve debates about the rate at which the universe expands.
 
 
 Although both these reports are intriguing, Lior Shamir emphasizes the necessity for further investigation to truly understand what’s happening. He stated, “It's crucial to determine whether the universe has an actual preferred orientation.” Such research is vital for broadening our comprehension of the laws governing the cosmos and might lead to groundbreaking insights into how the universe was formed and its fundamental structure.
 
 
 
 Also Read |
 
 
 Is Sunita Williams going to receive additional compensation for her prolonged time in space? Below is the NASA payment structure for her 9-month mission.
 
 
 </div>
 </div>


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Could We Be Inside a Supermassive Black Hole? James Webb's Discoveries Spark New Cosmic Theories

Unknown astronomy, astrophysics, black holes, cosmology, james webb space telescope

Scientists have long been intrigued by the secrets of the universe, and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided unprecedented information since it started observing deep space…