James Webb Space Telescope Finds Galaxies That Shouldn't Exist At All!

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered giant far-off galaxies that shouldn't exist at all. These galaxies are as big as the Milky Way galaxy and are home to mature red stars, deep field images clicked by JWST have showed.

These images have confounded astronomers, and were sourced from the first batch of data received from the telescope. These galaxies are so far away that they appear as tiny red dots to the telescope.

Based on the analysis of light emitted by these galaxies, astronomers have decided that what they're viewing is from the infancy stages of the universe - only 500,000 to 700,000 years after the Big Bang.

NASA, ESA, CSA, I. LABBE

Challenging our basic understanding of universe

While the existence of such early galaxies isn't surprising, it challenges many of our common understandings of the early universe. Scientists say that the first stars were formed after the universe exited its "dark ages" or the first 400,000 years of its existence when a thick fog shrouded everything.

NASA

But these galaxies found in the image are surprisingly big and the stars found in these galaxies are too old. These observations don't match our understanding of the early universe, also contradicting what the Hubble Space Telescope has found so far.

Also read:?James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Exoplanet That’s Almost The Same Size As Earth

Usually, young stars are bright blue. As they age, they become red - slowly cooling down. So when astronomers saw old red stars, they were shocked. And some of these galaxies are bigger than a billion suns, Space.com reported.

NASA

These puzzling images were clicked by Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) programme. Now, astronomers will use Webb to study these galaxies again.

Also read:?James Webb Space Telescope Captures A Gorgeous Merging Pair Of Galaxies

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