(ORDO NEWS) — The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a galaxy that formed just 350 million years after the Big Bang.
Astronomers said on Thursday that if the results are confirmed, this newly discovered cluster of stars would surpass the current record holder, a galaxy discovered by Hubble that formed 400 million years after the universe began.
Webb’s latest discoveries have been detailed in the Astrophysical Journal Letters by an international team of scientists led by Rohan Naidu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The article details two exceptionally bright galaxies, the first of which is believed to have formed 350 million years after the Big Bang, and the second 450 million years later.
Some researchers report finding galaxies even closer to the creation of the universe, but these candidates have yet to be tested.
Tommaso True of UCLA said the evidence presented so far for a galaxy that formed 350 million years after the Big Bang is “as strong as it gets.”
If the results are confirmed and even earlier galaxies are discovered, Webb, according to Naidoo and his team, “will be very successful in pushing the cosmic frontier right up to the brink of the Big Bang.”
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