Many of the circled objects symbolize beforehand unknown supernovae
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JADES Collaboration
Astronomers utilizing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered an astonishing number of supernovae in the distant universe, together with the farthest ever confirmed. Their discoveries have elevated the quantity of recognized supernovae in the early universe by an element of 10.
The researchers discovered 79 new supernovae by taking two photographs of the identical tiny patch of the sky, one in 2022 and one in 2023. “It’s actually so small that if you took a grain of rice and held it at arm’s length that would be the size of the patch,” mentioned Christa DeCoursey at the University of Arizona whereas presenting this work at a gathering of the American Astronomical Society in Wisconsin on 10 June. “We spent over 100 hours of JWST [observing] time on each image, so these are very, very deep images.”
The astronomers then in contrast the two photographs with each other and with footage of the identical space taken beforehand by the Hubble Space Telescope, on the lookout for vibrant spots that have been current in one picture however not the others.
These spots are stars that had been shining comparatively dimly earlier than exploding in vibrant supernovae and fading out. Several of them are candidates for the most distant supernova ever discovered, though their distances haven’t but been confirmed. And one is unquestionably the most distant ever confirmed – it blew up when the universe was solely about 1.8 billion years previous.
Supernovae like these most likely created the heavy components that at the moment are unfold all through the universe, in order that they include fewer of these components than trendy supernovae do. “The universe was fundamentally different at this early phase than the times that Hubble, and particularly ground-based surveys, were probing in the past,” mentioned Justin Pierel at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland throughout the presentation. “This is really a new regime that JWST has opened.” Observations in that regime might assist reveal what the first stars have been like.
Topics:
- stars/
- James Webb area telescope