The James Webb Space Telescope first turned its highly attuned telescopic eye into deep space last year, giving us some incredible images of the early days of the universe. Now it has looked back even further, and its identified the earliest galaxies ever witnessed and the light is so old we might actually be seeing them form in real time.
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00:00 [Music]
00:04 The James Webb Space Telescope first turned its highly attuned telescopic eye
00:08 into deep space last year, giving us some incredible images of the early days of the universe.
00:12 Now it has looked back even further, and it has identified the
00:16 earliest galaxies ever witnessed. And that light is so old, we might
00:20 actually be seeing them form in real time. Researchers in Denmark
00:24 have been analyzing the data for a while, finding that the proportion of heavy elements to
00:28 stars in these fledgling galaxies is off. They only have a quarter of what would be
00:32 expected of these crucial chemicals. Numbers that astronomers have repeatedly found
00:36 are relatively constant in galaxies throughout the last 12 billion years.
00:40 Which is why these galaxies are now believed to have not gone through enough star production
00:44 and star demise yet, meaning they are likely still forming. However, while
00:48 these findings are perhaps a surprise, what astronomers are actually witnessing occur in real
00:52 time isn't. Theoretical models actually predict it happening exactly
00:56 like this, with the researchers writing, "The result gives us the first
01:00 insight into the earliest stages of galaxy formation, which appear to be more
01:04 intimately connected with the gas in between the galaxies than we thought." Adding that this
01:08 is the James Webb Telescope's first observation related to galactic formation,
01:12 and more observations will likely reveal even more in the future.
01:16 [music]
01:20 (upbeat music)