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By NASA
5 Min Read NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154. Full image below. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University). It’s 7 billion years ago, and the universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
“We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these,” said astronomer Guillaume Desprez of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the team presenting the Webb results.
Image A: Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here. Two distant, interacting galaxies — a face-on spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen from the side — appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation, and the face-on galaxy’s remarkably intact spiral shape, indicate that these galaxies’ interaction is just beginning. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University). While this region has been observed previously with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the dusty red galaxy that forms the intriguing question-mark shape only came into view with Webb. This is a result of the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects getting trapped in cosmic dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light are able to pass through and be detected by Webb’s instruments.
Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. However, the same gravitational effects that magnify the galaxies also cause distortion, resulting in galaxies that appear smeared across the sky in arcs and even appear multiple times. These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.
The red galaxy revealed by Webb, along with a spiral galaxy it is interacting with that was previously detected by Hubble, are being magnified and distorted in an unusual way, which requires a particular, rare alignment between the distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer — something astronomers call a hyperbolic umbilic gravitational lens. This accounts for the five images of the galaxy pair seen in Webb’s image, four of which trace the top of the question mark. The dot of the question mark is an unrelated galaxy that happens to be in the right place and space-time, from our perspective.
Image B: Hubble and Webb Side by Side
Image Before/After In addition to producing a case study of the Webb NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument’s ability to detect star formation locations within a galaxy billions of light-years away, the research team also couldn’t resist highlighting the question mark shape. “This is just cool looking. Amazing images like this are why I got into astronomy when I was young,” said astronomer Marcin Sawicki of Saint Mary’s University, one of the lead researchers on the team.
“Knowing when, where, and how star formation occurs within galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe,” said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter of Saint Mary’s University, who used both Hubble’s ultraviolet and Webb’s infrared data to show where new stars are forming in the galaxies. The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirmed that the newfound dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the face-on spiral galaxy, and they are likely beginning to interact.
“Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding,” said Estrada-Carpenter. “However, neither galaxy’s shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other.”
“These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar to the mass that the Milky Way galaxy would have been at that time. Webb is allowing us to study what the teenage years of our own galaxy would have been like,” said Sawicki.
The Webb images and spectra in this research came from the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS). The research paper is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Image C: Wide Field – Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the research results from the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu , Leah Ramsey – lramsey@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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Last Updated Sep 04, 2024 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxy clusters Goddard Space Flight Center Gravitational Lensing James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research The Universe View the full article
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By NASA
5 Min Read Webb Finds Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All
This image shows a small portion of the field observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. The full image appears below. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, S. Finkelstein (University of Texas) It got called the crisis in cosmology. But now astronomers can explain some surprising recent discoveries.
When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders. Some galaxies appeared to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them. Some researchers suggested this meant that something might be wrong with the theory that explains what the universe is made of and how it has evolved since the big bang, known as the standard model of cosmology.
According to a new study in the Astrophysical Journal led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Katherine Chworowsky, some of those early galaxies are in fact much less massive than they first appeared. Black holes in some of these galaxies make them appear much brighter and bigger than they really are.
“We are still seeing more galaxies than predicted, although none of them are so massive that they ‘break’ the universe,” Chworowsky said.
The evidence was provided by Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, led by Steven Finkelstein, a professor of astronomy at UT Austin and study co-author.
Image A : CEERS Deep Field (NIRCam)
This image shows a small portion of the field observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. It is filled with galaxies. Some galaxies appear to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them. However, a new study finds that some of those early galaxies are in fact much less massive than they first appeared. Black holes in some of those galaxies make them appear much brighter and bigger than they really are. NASA, ESA, CSA, S. Finkelstein (University of Texas)
View 8k pixel full resolution version of the image
Black Holes Add to Brightness
According to this latest study, the galaxies that appeared overly massive likely host black holes rapidly consuming gas. Friction in the fast-moving gas emits heat and light, making these galaxies much brighter than they would be if that light emanated just from stars. This extra light can make it appear that the galaxies contain many more stars, and hence are more massive, than we would otherwise estimate. When scientists remove these galaxies, dubbed “little red dots” (based on their red color and small size), from the analysis, the remaining early galaxies are not too massive to fit within predictions of the standard model.
“So, the bottom line is there is no crisis in terms of the standard model of cosmology,” Finkelstein said. “Any time you have a theory that has stood the test of time for so long, you have to have overwhelming evidence to really throw it out. And that’s simply not the case.”
Efficient Star Factories
Although they’ve settled the main dilemma, a less thorny problem remains: There are still roughly twice as many massive galaxies in Webb’s data of the early universe than expected from the standard model. One possible reason might be that stars formed more quickly in the early universe than they do today.
“Maybe in the early universe, galaxies were better at turning gas into stars,” Chworowsky said.
Star formation happens when hot gas cools enough to succumb to gravity and condense into one or more stars. But as the gas contracts, it heats up, generating outward pressure. In our region of the universe, the balance of these opposing forces tends to make the star formation process very slow. But perhaps, according to some theories, because the early universe was denser than today, it was harder to blow gas out during star formation, allowing the process to go faster.
More Evidence of Black Holes
Concurrently, astronomers have been analyzing the spectra of “little red dots” discovered with Webb, with researchers in both the CEERS team and others finding evidence of fast-moving hydrogen gas, a signature of black hole accretion disks. This supports the idea that at least some of the light coming from these compact, red objects comes from gas swirling around black holes, rather than stars – reinforcing Chworowsky and their team’s conclusion that they are probably not as massive as astronomers initially thought. However, further observations of these intriguing objects are incoming, and should help solve the puzzle about how much light comes from stars versus gas around black holes.
Often in science, when you answer one question, that leads to new questions. While Chworowsky and their colleagues have shown that the standard model of cosmology likely isn’t broken, their work points to the need for new ideas in star formation.
“And so there is still that sense of intrigue,” Chworowsky said. “Not everything is fully understood. That’s what makes doing this kind of science fun, because it’d be a terribly boring field if one paper figured everything out, or there were no more questions to answer.”The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Downloads
Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
View/Download the research results from the Astrophysical Journal .
Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Marc Airhart – mairhart@austin.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
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More Webb News
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Webb Science Themes
Webb Mission Page
Related For Kids
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SpacePlace for Kids
En Español
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Ciencia de la NASA
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James Webb Space Telescope
Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Exoplanets
Exoplanet Stories
Universe
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Last Updated Aug 26, 2024 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research Goddard Space Flight Center James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research The Universe View the full article
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By USH
In our article from 2013 'Scientific proof human race was created by aliens' we have written about the various scientific studies that indicate that the so-called 97% non-coding sequences originally known as "junk DNA" in human DNA is no less than genetic code of extraterrestrial life forms. The overwhelming majority of Human DNA is "Off-world" in origin and the complete 'program' was positively not written on Earth and that the mathematical code in human DNA cannot be explained by evolution.
In the next video of Ancient Aliens episode 'Dark Secrets of Alien-Human Genetics' more evidence is provided that all humans are the result of alien genetic manipulation.
Transcript: In the middle of the night in 2008, 20-year-old Charmaine de Roserio Sage was sleeping when she was abruptly awakened by a terrifying sight: a reptilian humanoid standing over her. Charmaine describes the encounter vividly: "I woke up, and a reptilian entered the room. We went to an underground cave where a group of reptilians surrounded me. Each one placed a hand on my body, and I began to change. It was an extraordinary but bizarre experience to watch my body morph from a human form into a reptilian one, with my smooth skin transforming into scales and a tail emerging."
Charmaine claims that during this experience, she learned that all humans are the result of alien genetic manipulation, although some people are more affected than others. She believes that different extraterrestrial races have visited Earth throughout history and have selectively manipulated certain groups of humans. According to her, these alien interventions are part of an ongoing war between various intelligent species, fighting over territory and involving the creation and manipulation of life forms.
In 2010, biologists led by Sante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology made a remarkable discovery. They found that early humans not only coexisted with other primitive hominids but also interbred with them. Even more astonishing was the suggestion that another, unidentified species might also be represented in human DNA. This finding challenges the traditional view of human evolution as a straightforward progression from earlier hominids to modern humans.
Dr. John Hawks, an anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, conducted a comprehensive analysis of human DNA and discovered that the rate of genetic evolution in the past 5,000 years has been 100 times faster than in any previous 5,000-year period. This raises the question: what caused such rapid changes in human DNA? Is it possible that extraterrestrial beings interbred with humans within the last 5,000 years, leading to these significant genetic alterations?
One notable case occurred in Sydney, Australia, in July 1992. Peter Khoury awoke one night to find himself paralyzed and unable to speak, with a strange, milky-white-skinned woman with large eyes and sharp features straddling his body. Another woman, with Asian features, stood nearby. The blonde woman touched her stomach, pointed to the sky, and then both women disappeared, leaving behind a single strand of blonde hair.
Khoury took the hair to a laboratory for DNA analysis, and the results were surprising. The hair was optically clear, unlike any human hair, and contained a rare combination of Chinese and Celtic DNA. While it didn't conclusively prove an alien origin, it did indicate something highly unusual.
In May 2013, mathematician Vladimir Shcherbak and astrobiologist Maxim Makukov published a study suggesting that the human genome contains a hidden code with precise mathematical patterns and an unknown symbolic language. Their research led them to believe that an extraterrestrial "stamp" might be embedded in our DNA, pointing to deliberate manipulation by alien beings in the distant past.
For ancient astronaut theorists, this finding supports the idea that extraterrestrials targeted human DNA with artificial mutations, potentially creating a form of organic robots—intelligent beings designed by advanced alien civilizations. This theory also raises the possibility that our own drive to create cybernetically enhanced versions of ourselves might be a continuation of the same agenda initiated by our extraterrestrial creators.
In 1966, scientists made a groundbreaking discovery by deciphering the genetic code, revealing that DNA is structured in clusters of three molecules known as codons or triplets. This discovery was revolutionary because it hinted at the possibility that the ultimate proof of extraterrestrial involvement in our past might be found within our own DNA, rather than in physical artifacts like crashed spaceships.
Ancient astronaut theorists argue that this triplet structure in DNA might be evidence of extraterrestrial tampering, suggesting that the number three holds a key to understanding our genetic language and our connection to otherworldly beings.
Could this be the ultimate proof that humanity's origins are not solely earthly but are intertwined with extraterrestrial influences?
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By NASA
5 min read
How NASA Citizen Science Fuels Future Exoplanet Research
This artist’s concept shows the exoplanet K2-33b transiting its host star. Many citizen science projects at NASA invite the public to use transit data to make discoveries about exoplanets. NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s upcoming flagship astrophysics missions, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the Habitable Worlds Observatory, will study planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Over 5,000 exoplanets have been confirmed to date — and given that scientists estimate at least one exoplanet exists for every star in the sky, the hunt has just begun. Exoplanet discoveries from Roman and the Habitable Worlds Observatory may not be made only by professional researchers, but also by interested members of the public, known as citizen scientists.
Exoplanet research has a long involvement with citizen science. NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission and now-retired Kepler mission, which are responsible for the vast majority of exoplanet discoveries to date, both made observations freely available to the public immediately after processing. This open science policy paved the way for the public to get involved with NASA’s exoplanet science.
NASA’s Planet Hunters TESS project invites the public to classify exoplanet light curves from TESS online. Another project, Exoplanet Watch, allows citizen scientists to gather data about known exoplanets, submit their observations to NASA’s public data archive, and receive credit if their observation is used in a scientific paper. Participants don’t even need their own telescope — Exoplanet Watch also curates data from robotic telescopes for users to process.
Artist’s concept of NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). Data from TESS have been used in citizen science projects. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “Anyone across the world who has access to a smartphone or a laptop can fully participate in a lot of these citizen science efforts to help us learn more about the cosmos,” said Rob Zellem, the project lead and project scientist for Exoplanet Watch and astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
NASA’s citizen science projects have discovered several new planets from Kepler and TESS data. They have also helped scientists refine the best time to observe important targets, saving hours of precious observation time on current flagship missions like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Roman and the Habitable Worlds Observatory provide even more possibilities for citizen science. Expected to launch by May 2027, Roman will discover exoplanets through direct imaging, transits, and gravitational microlensing. Following that, the Habitable Worlds Observatory will take direct images of stars in our solar neighborhood to find potentially habitable planets and study their atmospheres.
The general public can get Roman data as quickly as I can as a scientist working on the mission.
Rob Zellem
Exoplanet Watch Project Lead and Project Scientist; Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Deputy Project Scientist for Communications
Like Kepler and TESS before them, data from Roman and the Habitable Worlds Observatory will be available to both the scientific community and the public immediately after processing. With Roman’s surveys expected to deliver a terabyte of data to Earth every day — over 17 times as much as Webb — there is a huge opportunity for the public to help sift through the information.
“The general public can get Roman data as quickly as I can as a scientist working on the mission,” said Zellem, who also serves as Roman’s deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. “It truly makes Roman a mission for everyone and anyone.”
Although the Habitable Worlds Observatory’s full capabilities and instrumentation have yet to be finalized, the inclusion of citizen science is expected to continue. The team behind the mission is embracing a community-oriented planning approach by opening up working groups to volunteers who want to contribute.
“It’s already setting the tone for open science with the Habitable Worlds Observatory,” said Megan Ansdell, the program scientist for the mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The process is as open as possible, and these working groups are open to anybody in the world who wants to join.” There are already over 1,000 community working group members participating, some of whom are citizen scientists.
The Roman Coronagraph, photographed during testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Southern California, is a technology demonstration designed to block starlight and allow scientists to see the faint light from planets outside our solar system. It represents one of multiple ways that Roman will contribute to exoplanet research. NASA/JPL-Caltech Future citizen science initiatives may be combined with cutting-edge tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) for greater efficacy. “AI can be exceptionally powerful in terms of classification and identifying anomalous things,” said Joshua Pepper, the deputy program scientist for the Habitable Worlds Observatory at NASA Headquarters. “But the evaluation of what those anomalous things are often requires human insight, intervention, and review, and I think that could be a really fantastic area for citizen scientists to participate.”
Before Roman and the Habitable Worlds Observatory launch, exoplanet citizen scientists still have plenty of data to analyze from the Kepler and TESS satellites, but the contributions of the community will become even more important when data begin pouring in from the new missions. As Zellem said, “We’re in a golden age of exoplanet science right now.”
NASA’s citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public and do not require U.S. citizenship. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries. To get involved with a project, visit NASA’s Citizen Science page.
By Lauren Leese
Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
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Last Updated Aug 08, 2024 Related Terms
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