NASA just shared a new image from its Hubble telescope, showcasing a faraway galaxy that's casting massive shadows in space. This photo is being released just under two weeks since NASA revived Hubble after a month-long outage. In June, the space organization reported an issue with Hubble's payload computer that caused it to go offline. WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden, pausing from political pressures to bask in the glow of the cosmos, on Monday released the debut photo from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope - an image of a galaxy cluster revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe ever seen. The White House sneak peek of Webb 's first high-resolution, full - color image came Imagine a fleet of 100 Hubble Space Telescopes, deployed in a strategic space-invader-shaped array a million miles from Earth, scanning the universe at warp speed. A significant portion of the mission will be dedicated to monitoring hundreds of thousands of distant galaxies for supernova explosions, which can be used to study dark energy Over the last three decades, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed some of the most enigmatic secrets of the universe—be it spiral galaxies located millions of light-years away from earth or portraits of Jupiter's storms. But come October 2021, the mantle of discovering galactic secrets will be passed on to the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope will photograph distant galaxies attempt to un CĂąu hỏi Nháș­n biáșżt Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions. The telescope will photograph distant galaxies, ____ attempt to understand their past. A. in B. for C. on D. with Đåp ĂĄn đĂșng: A Vay Tiền Online Chuyển KhoáșŁn Ngay. Researchers have detected complex organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away from Earth - the most distant galaxy in which these molecules are now known to exist. Thanks to the capabilities of the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and careful analyses from the research team, a new study lends critical insight into the complex chemical interactions that occur in the first galaxies in the early universe. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign astronomy and physics professor Joaquin Vieira and graduate student Kedar Phadke collaborated with researchers at Texas A&M University and an international team of scientists to differentiate between infrared signals generated by some of the more massive and larger dust grains in the galaxy and those of the newly observed hydrocarbon molecules. The study findings are published in the journal Nature. "This project started when I was in graduate school studying hard-to-detect, very distant galaxies obscured by dust," Vieira said. "Dust grains absorb and re-emit about half of the stellar radiation produced in the universe, making infrared light from distant objects extremely faint or undetectable through ground-based telescopes." In the new study, the JWST received a boost from what the researchers call "nature's magnifying glass" - a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. "This magnification happens when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned from the Earth's point of view, and light from the background galaxy is warped and magnified by the foreground galaxy into a ring-like shape, known as an Einstein ring," Vieira said. The team focused the JWST on SPT0418-47 - an object discovered using the National Science Foundation's South Pole Telescope and previously identified as a dust-obscured galaxy magnified by a factor of about 30 to 35 by gravitational lensing. SPT0418-47 is 12 billion light-years from Earth, corresponding to a time when the universe was less than billion years old, or about 10% of its current age, the researchers said. "Before having access to the combined power of gravitational lensing and the JWST, we could neither see nor spatially resolve the actual background galaxy through all of the dust," Vieira said. Spectroscopic data from the JWST suggest that the obscured interstellar gas in SPT0418-47 is enriched in heavy elements, indicating that generations of stars have already lived and died. The specific compound the researchers detected is a type of molecule called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAH. On Earth, these molecules can be found in the exhaust produced by combustion engines or forest fires. Being comprised of carbon chains, these organic molecules are considered the basic building blocks for the earliest forms of life, the researchers said. "What this research is telling us right now - and we are still learning - is that we can see all of the regions where these smaller dust grains are located - regions that we could never see before the JWST," Phadke said. "The new spectroscopic data lets us observe the galaxy's atomic and molecular composition, providing very important insights into the formation of galaxies, their lifecycle and how they evolve." "We didn't expect this," Vieira said. "Detecting these complex organic molecules at such a vast distance is game-changing regarding future observations. This work is just the first step, and we're just now learning how to use it and learn its capabilities. We are very excited to see how this plays out." "It's extremely cool that galaxies I discovered while writing my thesis would one day be observed by the JWST," Vieira said. "I am grateful to the taxpayers, the NSF and NASA for funding and supporting both the SPT and the JWST. Without these instruments, this discovery could have never been made." Vieira also is the director of the Center for AstroPhysical Surveys, funded by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois. Phadke is a CAPS graduate fellow. The Space Telescope Science Institute operates the JWST under the management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127. It has been an exciting week with the release of breathtaking photos of our Universe by the James Webb Space Telescope JWST. Images such as the one below give us a chance to see faint distant galaxies as they were more than 13 billion years ago. The SMACS 0723 deep field image was taken with only a exposure. Faint galaxies in this image emitted this light more than 13 billion years ago. NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI It’s the perfect time to step back and appreciate our first-class ticket to the depths of the Universe and how these images allow us to look back in time. These images also raise interesting points about how the expansion of the Universe factors into the way we calculate distances at a cosmological scale. Modern time travel Looking back in time might sound like a strange concept, but it’s what space researchers do every single day. Our Universe is bound by the rules of physics, with one of the best-known “rules” being the speed of light. And when we talk about “light”, we’re actually referring to all the wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum, which travel at around a whooping 300,000 kilometres per second. Light travels so fast that in our everyday lives it appears to be instantaneous. Even at these break-neck speeds, it still takes some time to travel anywhere across the cosmos. When you look at the Moon, you actually see it as it was seconds ago. It’s only a tiny peek back in time, but it’s still the past. It’s the same with sunlight, except the photons light particles emitted from the Sun’s surface travel just over eight minutes before they finally reach Earth. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, spans 100,000+ light-years. And the beautiful newborn stars seen in JWST’s Carina Nebula image are 7,500 light-years away. In other words, this nebula as pictured is from a time roughly 2,000 years earlier than when the first ever writing is thought to have been invented in ancient Mesopotamia. The Carina Nebula is a birthplace for stars. NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI Anytime we look away from the Earth, we’re looking back in time to how things once were. This is a superpower for astronomers because we can use light, as observed throughout time, to try to puzzle together the mystery of our universe. What makes JWST spectacular Space-based telescopes let us see certain ranges of light that are unable to pass through Earth’s dense atmosphere. The Hubble space telescope was designed and optimised to use both ultraviolet UV and visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The JWST was designed to use a broad range of infrared light. And this is a key reason the JWST can see further back in time than Hubble. The electromagnetic spectrum with Hubble and JWST’s ranges. Hubble is optimised to see shorter wavelengths. These two telescopes complement each other, giving us a fuller picture of the universe. NASA, J. Olmsted STScI Galaxies emit a range of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays to radio waves, and everything in between. All of these give us important information about the different physics occurring in a galaxy. When galaxies are near us, their light hasn’t changed that much since being emitted, and we can probe a vast range of these wavelengths to understand what’s happening inside them. But when galaxies are extremely far away, we no longer have that luxury. The light from the most distant galaxies, as we see it now, has been stretched to longer and redder wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe. This means some of the light that would have been visible to our eyes when it was first emitted has since lost energy as the universe expanded. It’s now in a completely different region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a phenomenon called “cosmological redshift”. And this is where the JWST really shines. The broad range of infrared wavelengths detectable by JWST allow it to see galaxies Hubble never could. Combine this capability with the JWST’s enormous mirror and superb pixel resolution, and you have the most powerful time machine in the known universe. Read more Two experts break down the James Webb Space Telescope's first images, and explain what we've already learnt Light age does not equal distance Using the JWST, we will be able to capture extremely distant galaxies as they were only 100 million years after the Big Bang – which happened around billion years ago. So we will be able to see light from billion years ago. What’s about to hurt your brain, however, is that those galaxies are not billion light-years away. The actual distance to those galaxies today would be ~46 billion light-years. This discrepancy is all thanks to the expanding universe, and makes working on a very large scale tricky. The universe is expending due to something called “dark energy”. It’s thought to be a universal constant, acting equally in all areas of space-time the fabric of our universe. And the more the universe expands, the greater the effect dark energy has on its expansion. This is why even though the universe is billion years old, it’s actually about 93 billion light-years across. We can’t see the effect of dark energy on a galactic scale within the Milky Way but we can see it over much greater cosmological distances. Sit back and enjoy We live in a remarkable time of technology. Just 100 years ago, we didn’t know there were galaxies outside our own. Now we estimate there are trillions, and we are spoilt for choice. For the foreseeable future, the JWST will be taking us on a journey through space and time each and every week. You can stay up to date with the latest news as NASA releases it. ï»żThe James Webb Space Telescope has spotted complex organic molecules, which usually form in smoke and smog, in the very distant universe. With help from a galactic gravitational anomaly, the telescope could see the molecules from more than 12 billion light-years molecules in question are known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs, and here on Earth, they’re usually present in smoke and smog from burning wood, coal, oil, gas and other materials. They’ve been detected throughout the universe, and were often thought of as the smoke to the fire of star formation. But the new Webb observations suggest that might not be the case.“These big molecules are actually pretty common in space,” said Justin Spilker, lead author of the study. “Astronomers used to think they were a good sign that new stars were forming. Anywhere you saw these molecules, baby stars were also right there blazing away. Thanks to the high-definition images from Webb, we found a lot of regions with smoke but no star formation, and others with new stars forming but no smoke.”The telescope spotted PAHs much farther back in space and time than ever before – in a galaxy located more than 12 billion light-years away. That means we’re seeing it as it existed just billion years after the Big Bang, marking the first time these molecules have been detected in the early galaxy itself was first discovered in 2013, but it took the extraordinary eyesight of the James Webb Space Telescope before the molecules could be picked up. Even then, it needed a boost from a cosmic magnifying glass. A diagram illustrating how gravitational lensing works to magnify distant galaxiesS. Doyle/J. Spilker Massive objects like galaxies can distort the very fabric of spacetime, which in turn can bend the path of passing light. This can magnify a distant object that would be otherwise invisible to us and make it detectable, through a phenomenon called gravitational this case, the target galaxy was magnified by the gravity of another galaxy much closer to us, which just so happens to be perfectly aligned from our perspective. This creates an effect known as an Einstein ring, where the background galaxy is stretched into a ring shape surrounding the foreground galaxy. In doing so, the telescope could pick up the “smoke signals” from farther away than ever may be the first such detection, but the researchers say it likely won’t be the last. Future observations could help astronomers unravel the connection between these molecules and star formation.“These are early days for the Webb Telescope, so astronomers are excited to see all the new things it can do for us,” said Spilker. “Maybe we’ll even be able to find galaxies that are so young that complex molecules like these haven’t had time to form in the vacuum of space yet, so galaxies are all fire and no smoke. The only way to know for sure is to look at more galaxies, hopefully even further away than this one.”The research was published in the journal Texas A&M A telescope image of distant galaxies, showing thousands of bright stars and galaxies on a black background. In a zoomed-in box is the pale, faint galaxy detected in this new study. Image credit NASA, ESA, CSA, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, STScI The James Webb Space Telescope JWST has identified one of the most distant galaxies ever seen — an ancient, nearly invisible star cluster so remote that its light is the faintest scientists have ever JD1, the galaxy — whose light traveled for roughly billion years to reach us — was born just a few million years after the Big Bang. Back then, the cosmos was shrouded in a pitch-black fog that not even light could pass through; galaxies like this one were vital in burning the gloom from within the Sculptor constellation in the southern sky, JD1's light left its source when the universe was just 4% of its current age. The light crossed dissipating gas clouds and boundless space before passing through the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, whose space-time-warping gravitational pull acted as a giant magnifying lens to steer the ancient galaxy into focus for the JWST. The researchers who discovered the dim, distant galaxy published their findings May 17 in the journal Can the James Webb Space Telescope really see the past?"Before the Webb telescope switched on, just a year ago, we could not even dream of confirming such a faint galaxy," Tommaso Treu, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA, said in a statement. "The combination of JWST and the magnifying power of gravitational lensing is a revolution. We are rewriting the book on how galaxies formed and evolved in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang."In the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, the expanding universe cooled enough to allow protons to bind with electrons, creating a vast shroud of light-blocking hydrogen gas that blanketed the cosmos in darkness. From the eddies of this cosmic sea-foam, the first stars and galaxies clotted, beaming out ultraviolet light that reionized the hydrogen fog, breaking it down into protons and electrons to render the universe transparent have observed evidence for reionization in many places the dimming of brightly flaring quasars ultrabright objects powered by supermassive black holes; the scattering of light from electrons in the cosmic microwave background; and the infrequent, dim light given off by hydrogen clouds. Yet because the first galaxies used so much of their light to dissipate the stifling hydrogen mist, what they actually looked like has long remained a mystery to astronomers. "Most of the galaxies found with JWST so far are bright galaxies that are rare and not thought to be particularly representative of the young galaxies that populated the early universe," first author Guido Roberts-Borsani, an astronomer at UCLA, said in the statement. "As such, while important, they are not thought to be the main agents that burned through all of that hydrogen fog."Ultra-faint galaxies such as JD1, on the other hand, are far more numerous, which is why we believe they are more representative of the galaxies that conducted the reionization process, allowing ultraviolet light to travel unimpeded through space and time," Roberts-Borsani discover JD1's first stirrings from beneath its hydrogen cocoon, the researchers used the JWST to study the galaxy's gravitationally lensed image in the infrared and near-infrared spectra of light. This enabled them to detect JD1's age, distance from Earth and elemental composition, as well as estimate how many stars it had formed. The team also made out a trace of the galaxy's structure a compact glob built from three main spurs of star-birthing gas and dust. The astronomers' next task is to use their technique to unveil even more of these first galaxies, revealing how they worked in unison to bathe the universe in light. Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter. Ben Turner is a based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess. Tags Most Popular This week the Webb team continued to make progress in aligning the telescope to the NIRCam instrument. Between taking the data to understand the optical components, we continue to check out the science instruments. The NIRSpec instrument includes a microshutter array of a quarter-million miniature movable windows, each by millimeters in size. The microshutter array allows scientists to target specific galaxies in fields they are studying, while closing the windows on the background or other objects which would contaminate the spectra. We have begun testing the mechanism and electronics that control and actuate the microshutters. In recent weeks, we shared a technique for theoretically modeling the early universe. Today, we will discuss an observational program to help us answer some of those questions. Massimo Stiavelli, the Webb Mission Office head at the Space Telescope Science Institute, tells us about his planned investigations of the first stars and galaxies “The chemical composition of the early universe, just after the big bang, is the product of the nuclear processes that took place in the first few minutes of the universe’s existence. These processes are known as primordial nucleosynthesis.’ One of the predictions of this model is that the chemical composition of the early universe is largely hydrogen and helium. There were only traces of heavier elements, which formed later in stars. These predictions are compatible with observations, and are in fact one of the key pieces of evidence that support the hot big bang model. “The earliest stars formed out of material with this primordial composition. Finding these stars, commonly dubbed as the First Stars’ or Population III stars,’ is an important verification of our cosmological model, and it is within reach of the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb might not be able to detect individual stars from the beginning of the universe, but it can detect some of the first galaxies containing these stars. “One way to confirm whether we are finding the first stars is to accurately measure metallicities of very distant galaxies. The astronomical term, metallicity, is a measurement of the amount of material heavier than hydrogen and helium – so a low metallicity galaxy would indicate it was made up of these First Stars.’ One of the most distant galaxies discovered so far, known as MACS1149-JD1, is confirmed to be at redshift and emitted the light we see when the universe was only 600 million years old. The light from this distant galaxy has been traveling ever since then and is just reaching us now. “In the first year of Webb science, I have an observing program to study this galaxy and determine its metallicity. I will do this by attempting to measure the ratio in the strength of two spectroscopic lines emitted by oxygen ions, originally emitted at violet-blue and blue-green visible light rest frame wavelengths at 4,363 angstroms and 5,007 angstroms. Thanks to cosmological redshift, these lines are now detectable at the infrared wavelengths that Webb can see. The use of a ratio of two lines of the same ion can provide an exquisite measurement of the gas temperature in this galaxy and, through relatively simple theoretical modeling, will provide a robust measurement of its metallicity. “The challenge is that one of these lines is usually extremely weak. However, this line tends to get stronger at lower metallicity. So if we failed to detect the line and measure metallicity for MACS1149-JD1, that would likely mean that it has already been enriched by the heavier elements, and we need to look further and harder. Whether using my data or with future programs, I fully expect that during its operational lifetime Webb will be able to find objects with metallicity sufficiently low to hold keys for understanding the first generation of stars.” –Massimo Stiavelli, Webb Mission Office head, Space Telescope Science Institute By Jonathan Gardner, Webb deputy senior project scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center And Alexandra Lockwood, project scientist for Webb science communications, Space Telescope Science Institute Post navigation

the telescope will photograph distant galaxies