Astronomers were taken by surprise on Thursday after detecting oxygen in the most distant galaxy ever discovered, providing further evidence that stars in the early universe evolved far more quickly than previously believed.
This discovery challenges existing theories, suggesting that galaxies in the early universe were more advanced than initially thought, with heavier elements like oxygen appearing much earlier than expected. This finding continues to reshape our understanding of the cosmos, revealing a faster-than-anticipated development of star formation in the universe's infancy.
The galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0, discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope last year, is located so far away that its light took 13.4 billion years to reach Earth. This distance allows scientists to study the universe as it was just 300 million years after the Big Bang, when it was only 2% of its current age.
Since Webb's activation in 2022, it has uncovered surprising findings: galaxies in the early universe were brighter, more advanced, and more numerous than expected. These discoveries have led to questions about whether our understanding of the universe is incomplete. Recently, two international teams led by Dutch and Italian astronomers used the ALMA radio telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert to study the JADES-GS-z14-0 galaxy.
They detected traces of oxygen, confirming previous findings from the Webb telescope, which challenges the assumption that early galaxies only contained lighter elements like hydrogen and helium. Instead, they also contained heavier elements such as oxygen much earlier than expected.
(This story is published from a syndicated feed)