NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has lately given mankind many
first-ever glimpses into the furthest reaches of the cosmos.
Furthermore, as was to be expected, some of these amazing new findings have
raised more concerns than they have addressed.
For instance, scientists formerly believed that the first galaxies in the
universe were tiny, irregular, and slightly chaotic structures. However,
JWST photography has revealed that those galaxies are astoundingly large in
addition to being balanced and well-formed - a finding that contradicts and
will likely alter long-held assumptions about the origin of our
universe.
The models "simply don't foresee this," according to astronomer Garth
Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, for WaPo. How do
you do this at such a young age in the universe? How do you rapidly create
so many stars?
WaPo reports that earlier images of the universe collected by the Hubble
Space Telescope before it was removed from service seemed to support the
widely held opinion that early galaxies were chaotic, disorderly regions.
The JWST, however, appears to show that such discoveries were a mirage based
on Hubble's limited capabilities.
Dan Coe of the Space Telescope Science Institute told WaPo, "We thought the
early universe was this chaotic place where there's all these clumps of star
formation, and things are all a-jumble," later adding that, prior to the
JWST's launch into orbit, Hubble's imagery was "missing all the colder stars
and the older stars." We were primarily observing the attractive young
people.
These results astonished the scientific community, yet there is no cause
for alarm at all. Astronomy and other sciences have a long history of
substantial technology advancements that have sparked bursts of scientific
discovery. Even while breakthroughs may be decades away, we now appear to be
at one of those turning moments, and it's possible that today's discoveries
may lay the groundwork for future breakthroughs.
And in fact, results like these demonstrate that the JWST is doing exactly
what researchers had hoped it would: it is revealing fresh, interesting data
about our mind-bogglingly huge cosmos while simultaneously resolving old
mysteries and presenting new ones.
Reference(s):
WashingtonPost
