The James Webb Space Telescope continues to journey billions of years into the past, capturing unprecedented, high-resolution images.
According to BGR, the James Webb has achieved remarkable feats since it began its mission to explore the cosmos. The latest telescope has not only captured stunning images of the universe but has also peered back 11.5 billion years into the past to observe the “rainbow knot.”
Recently, astronomers have even looked further back in time with Webb, discovering starlight from several quasars (extremely distant and bright galaxies) that are among the oldest ever witnessed.
Two ancient galaxies were seen in their pristine state when the universe was less than a billion years old. With the universe today estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old, James Webb’s new discovery has provided images of one of the most ancient galaxies ever observed by astronomers. Researchers noted that the light from these two galaxies took 12.9 and 12.8 billion years to reach Earth.
Two quasars from over 12 billion years ago were recently discovered by James Webb.
Observations of these ancient quasars reveal that their masses are approximately 130 billion and 30 billion times the mass of the Sun, and the masses of the black holes within these galaxies are over 1.4 billion and 200 million times that of the Sun, respectively.
This information not only sheds light on early galaxies but also indicates that the masses of these galaxies and their black holes are consistent with what astronomers have observed in more recent galaxy observations.
Astronomers consider quasars to be some of the most extreme entities in the universe. These entities are powered by supermassive black holes surrounded by dust and gas, much of which is accreted into the black holes at the centers of the galaxies they inhabit. Quasars are often known for their exceptionally bright light.
The cause of quasar formation remains a mystery. However, James Webb’s recent discoveries have helped humanity gain a better understanding of these ancient quasars and the distances at which they can be found from Earth, which is particularly exciting for those trying to unravel the mysteries of the early universe.
