Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) have become the first team to observe the formation of three of the oldest galaxies in the universe, dating back over 13 billion years.
The researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen witnessed the birth of the first trio of galaxies in the universe, which dates back approximately 13.3 to 13.4 billion years.
Simulation of the gas accumulation process leading to galaxy formation. (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN).
Through the James Webb Telescope, the team detected signals from large amounts of gas accumulating and being fed into a mini-galaxy currently in the process of being formed, as reported in the journal Science.
While this is how galaxies are theorized to form based on computer simulations, such a process had never been observed in reality until recently.
“We can say these are the first direct images showing the birth of galaxies,” said the lead researcher, Professor Kasper Elm Heintz from the Niels Bohr Institute.
The researchers estimate that the formation of this trio of galaxies occurred about 400-600 million years after the Big Bang that created the universe, meaning it was during a period when the universe was about 3-4% of its current age.
“In the first few hundred million years following the Big Bang, the first stars appeared, before stars and gas began to accumulate into galaxies. That is the process we are observing,” said Professor Darach Watson, a member of the research team.
