Webb finds most distant known galaxy

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have found a record-breaking galaxy observed only 290 million years after the big bang. 

Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.

Over the last two years, scientists have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn – the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where the first galaxies were born. These galaxies provide vital insight into the ways in which the gas, stars, and black holes were changing when the universe was very young. In October 2023 and January 2024, an international team of astronomers used Webb to observe galaxies as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) programme.

Webb’s NIRSpec was used to obtain a spectrum of the distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0 in order to accurately measure its redshift and therefore determine its age. The redshift (14) can be determined from the location of a critical wavelength known as the Lyman break. This galaxy dates back to less than 300 million years after the big bang.

These spectroscopic observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) programme 1287, and the accompanying MIRI data as part of GTO programme 1180.

Learn more about these results here.

[Image description: A graph labeled “Galaxy JADES GS z 14 – 0, Galaxy existed 300 million years after big bang, NIRSpec microshutter array spectroscopy.” The x-axis is labeled “Wavelength of Light, microns” and extends from about 0.5 microns to 5.5 microns, with tick marks every 0.5 microns from 1.0 to 5.0. The y-axis is labeled “Brightness” and has a zero mark with a horizontal, dashed line about a third of the way up from the bottom. A jagged orange line runs horizontally across the graph. It fluctuates above and below the zero line until reaching a wavelength of about 1.9 microns, at which point it peaks before gradually decreasing again, but remaining above the zero line. The wavelength where the emission peaks has a vertical red line labeled “Lyman break, z = 14.32.”]

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