The Maize Galaxy existed when the universe was only 390 million years old. When you look at the sky, you can also see into the past.
James Webb’s image of the Cartwheel Galaxy. Illustration image. Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
In the summer of 2022, the James Webb telescope discovered an orange glowing point of light in space. When studying this in more detail, scientists came to the conclusion that it is one of the oldest galaxies in the universe, and one of the earliest that humanity has seen. Told about it Space.
The galaxy was found to have already existed when the universe was only 390 million years old. This may sound like a long time, but considering the age of our universe at about 13.8 billion years, it can be stated that the galaxy in question has existed at a very early stage of the universe.
James Webb telescope under construction in 2016. NASA Photo / Alamy Stock Photo
By comparison, dinosaurs on Earth disappeared only about 66 million years ago.
– The Maise galaxy is one of the first to be observed from the early days (of the universe), University of Texas astronomer Steven Finkelstein tells.
The galaxy was named after Finkelstein’s daughter. His daughter Maisie turned 9 on the same day as the discovery of the galaxy.
– We happened to find a galaxy in the telescope data on the same day as my daughter’s birthday, so I just started calling this Maisie’s galaxy.
Looking back?
According to the New York Post The US space agency NASA’s James Webb telescope is the most powerful man-made telescope that can see very close even to the moment of the Big Bang known as the Big Bang. The James Webb Telescope can detect as far back as 13.5-13.7 billion years.
James Webb’s image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 4.6 billion years ago. Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
As strange as going back to the past sounds, the explanation in the endgame is very simple physics.
For example, when you look at the moon, you don’t see what is happening there at the moment, but you look 1.3 seconds into the past. When you look at our closest star, i.e. the sun, you can see what happened there 8.3 minutes ago.
Even though the speed of light is our fastest known unit of speed, it still takes time to travel through space. For example, when gazing at the stars, you might see the light of a star light years away that has been extinguished a long time ago.
A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. That is, about 9.46 trillion kilometers. There are 12 zeros in a trillion.
With the same logic, telescopes can also see into the past, but much more efficiently and further.