Webb Telescope Finds Far More Bright Early Galaxies Than Previously Thought - NASA

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already discovered in its first six months of operation far more galaxies, including bright ones estimated to have formed far closer to the origin of the universe, than was previously thought possible, NASA scientists told a press conference on Thursday.

"There are many more million early galaxies than we thought," GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program Principal Investigator Tommaso Treu said. "The universe started to make galaxies far earlier than we expected. ... [The discovery was] a surprise, something really unexpected."

The spectroscopes on the Webb telescope systems have already revealed the "fingerprints" of the different atomic structures, providing a much more precise picture of galaxies in the early universe moving at faster at higher redshift velocities than had ever before been seen or measured, Space Telescope Science Institute instrument scientist Alaina Henry said.

One galaxy had been found that was estimated to have been created only 350 million and another possibly only 250 million years after the Big Bang creation of the universe, Extragalactic Research Survey co-investigator Garth Illingworth said.

"I fully expect we will find even earlier galaxies trying to build up a big map of galaxies," Illingworth said.

Finding such ultra-bright early galaxies has already transformed understandings and expectations about the nature of the early universe, Illingworth added.