2 Distant Galaxies Discovered at Pandora’s Cluster Using NASA’s JWST Data [Study]

Astronomers discovered two distant galaxies located in Pandora's Clusters. They also identified the two and noted they were the second and fourth-most distant galaxies deep in the early universe.

JWST Data Reveals 2 Galaxies in Pandora's Cluster

A new study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data to discover the two most distant planets. An international team of researchers spotted the galaxies, which they named UNCOVER z-13 and UNCOVER z-12, in a region of space known as Pandora's Cluster.

Both are arguably larger than the three galaxies previously discovered at comparable extreme distances. In actuality, other galaxies seen at these separations show up in pictures as red spots.

About 60,000 light sources, including the two galaxies, were found in one of the first deep-field images obtained by JWST in 2022. The UNCOVER team chose 700 light sources for additional study because they thought eight might be among the earliest galaxies.

The study's first author, Bingjie Wang, a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State's Eberly College of Science and a member of the JWST UNCOVER team, stated in a press release that very little is known about the early universe and that the only way to learn about that time and to test our theories of early galaxy formation and growth is with these very distant galaxies. Only three galaxies were known to be confirmed at this extreme distance before our investigation. The diversity of galaxies in the early cosmos and the wealth of knowledge that may be gleaned from them have been made clear by studying these new galaxies and their characteristics.

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Galaxies Provide Glimpse Into Distant Past

According to the JWST UNCOVER (Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization) team, the galaxies, which are situated approximately 33 billion light-years away, will offer novel perspectives on the formation process of the earliest galaxies in the cosmos. Since it has taken so long for the light from these galaxies to reach Earth, they effectively offer a fascinating window into the distant past.

The JWST observations of these galaxies have led the researchers to conclude that their light originated when the universe was 330 million years old. After that, it took almost 13.4 billion years for it to arrive at the space observatory. However, the universe has been expanding during this time, so the galaxies are now closer to 33 billion light-years away from our planet.

Joel Leja, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and member of the UNCOVER team, claims that the light from these old galaxies is around three times older than the Earth.

With light bursting through the extremely thin hydrogen gas that comprised the early universe, these early galaxies resemble beacons. Leja stated that we can only understand the unique physics governing the galaxy close to the cosmic beginning, thanks to their brightness.