Monday, March 04, 2024

GN-z11: One of the Most Distant Galaxies Ever Seen | James Webb Space Telescope

GN-z11: One of the Most Distant Galaxies Ever Seen | James Webb Space Telescope

   

Looking deep into space and time, two teams using the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11 that existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old Universe was only about 430 million years old.

Delivering on its promise to transform our understanding of the early Universe, the James Webb Space Telescope is probing galaxies near the dawn of time. One of these is the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when the Universe was just a tiny fraction of its current age. Initially detected with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, it is one of the youngest and most distant galaxies ever observed, and it is also one of the most enigmatic. Why is it so bright? Webb appears to have found the answer.

A team studying GN-z11 with Webb found the first clear evidence that the galaxy is hosting a central, supermassive black hole that is rapidly accreting matter. Their finding makes this the most distant active supermassive black hole spotted to date.


Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), M. Rieke (University of Arizona), D. Eisenstein (CfA)

Release Date: March 4, 2024

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