New Study Reveals a Wide Diversity of Galaxies in the Early Universe

New information from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed that the structures of galaxies in the early universe were much more diverse and also mature than previously known. Researchers recently compared photos of hundreds of galaxies taken by JWST for the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey with corresponding photos once taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and presented the outcomes at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

The research examined 850 galaxies at redshifts of z 3-9, or as they were roughly 11-13 billion years earlier. Associate Professor Jeyhan Kartaltepe from Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Physics and Astronomy stated that JWST’s capability to see faint high redshift galaxies in sharper detail than Hubble enabled the team of scientists to solve more features and observe a wide mix of galaxies, including many with mature features like as disks and spheroidal parts.

“There have been before studies emphasizing that we observe a lot of galaxies with disks at great redshift, which is true, but in this study, we also observe a lot of galaxies with other structures, such as spheroids and irregular forms, as we do at reduced redshifts,” stated Kartaltepe, lead writer on the paper and CEERS co-investigator. “This means that also at these high redshifts, galaxies were currently fairly evolved and had a wide range of structures.”

The result of the study on galaxies

The research study results, which have been released to arXiv and also accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, illustrate JWST’s advances in depth, resolution, and wavelength coverage over Hubble. Out of the 850 galaxies utilized in the study that Hubble previously identified, 488 were reclassified with distinct morphologies after being shown in more detail with JWST. Kartaltepe stated scientists are just starting to reap the benefits of JWST’s outstanding capabilities and are excited by what upcoming data will reveal.

“This tells us that we do not yet know when the earliest galaxy structures formed,” stated Kartaltepe. “We are not yet seeing the very first galaxies with disks. We’ll need to examine a lot more galaxies at higher redshifts to quantify at what point in time features like disks could form.”

The research study utilized an initial information set caught by CEERS when JWST initially came online in June; however, the survey has since caught a total of 60 observing hrs, potentially providing thousands of high redshift galaxies to explore more. Kartaltepe said COSMOS-Web, the biggest General Observer program selected for JWST’s first year, will offer an also bigger sample through 255 hours of observing time with the telescope. COSMOS-Web began its observing campaign this month.

Several of Kartaltepe’s collaborators on the research study were RIT students, including astrophysical sciences and also technology Ph.D. students Caitlin Rose, Brittany Vanderhoof, and Isabella Cox; imaging science Ph.D. student James Liu; and also undergraduate physics student Jayse Petersen.

Read the original article on PHYS.

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