Rapid Fire
James Webb Telescope Spots Oldest Dead Galaxy
- 09 Mar 2024
- 2 min read
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently uncovered fascinating insights into the universe's history by capturing the oldest-known dead galaxy, which ceased star formation approximately 13 billion years ago, 700 million years after the Big Bang event that gave rise to the universe.
- The dead galaxy underwent a short but intense period of star formation between 30 and 90 million years, abruptly ceasing star formation between 10 and 20 million years before the JWST's observation.
- Its mass is comparable to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way.
- Insights suggest abundant gas cloud collapses in the early universe facilitated star formation, but internal factors like supermassive black holes or gas depletion can halt this process.
- Gas depletion may result from rapid consumption without replenishment, leading to galaxies transitioning from star-forming to dormant states.
- The dynamic nature of the early universe implies potential rejuvenation of dead galaxies, subject to further observations.
- JWST is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency which was launched in December 2021.
- It is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
- It's the largest, most powerful infrared space telescope ever built and is successor to the Hubble Telescope.
