James-Webb: This photo does not only show galaxies but changes our perception of time

James-Webb re-examined a region of the sky discovered by Hubble over 20 years ago. A historical image had then revealed thousands of distant galaxies in an area that seemed empty of stars.

This photo of James-Webb rewrites the cosmic past

The investigation of the Miri Deep Imaging Survey used James-Webb’s average infrared instrument, capable of detecting wavelengths invisible to the naked eye. The telescope observed this same region for 100 hours, including 41 hours with a special filter allowing to capture the low infrared glow of old stars and their structure.

The observation made it possible to detect signals of galaxies formed when the universe had only a few hundred million years. The more we dig deep, the more old layers we find. To summarize: the image crosses thousands of light years and each layer corresponds to a more remote era.

The team has identified nearly 2,500 light sources, mainly from remote galaxies. The distance estimates of 1,000 of them were reviewed thanks to the analysis of the lag of their light.

James-Webb was designed to observe cosmic dawn, between 100 million and 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The telescope detects invisible infrared light, stretched by the expansion of the universe over its space-time trip.

This phenomenon, called “Red offset”transforms visible light into an infrared radiation detectable by James-Webb. The infrared waves also cross the gases and the cosmic dust which would otherwise mask the weak and distant light sources.

The results were published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. According to the researchers, it is “The longest monofiber exposure ever obtained with James-Webb on an extra-galactic field”. For scientists, it is a technical feat that will help better understand the training of the first cosmic structures.

James-Webb is much more precise than Spitzer

Among the modifications: a galaxy dated 11.8 billion years which increases to 13.3 billion years. Its origins are therefore only 450 million years after the Big Bang, in the first wave of galaxies formed.

James-Webb has also revised that hundreds of red galaxies are due to the color of dust or colder mature stars. The space telescope shows an unequaled level of clarity compared to its predecessor, Spitzer.

Returning to the distance from these galaxies shows how James-Webb is capable of modifying the way in which the primitive universe is perceived. Each new observation refines the understanding of cosmic evolution and pushes the limits of the observable.

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