An early hint of cosmic dawn has been in a distant galaxy

A galaxy found at the dawn of the universe appears to be the earliest known proof of cosmic reionization, the period when the universe was lit for the first time.

After the Big Bang, the early universe was girl with hot hydrogen and helium gas that spread photons, making the cosmos sole opaque. Over the next couple of hunting millions of years when stars began to shine, ionized their light hydrogen and helium, allowing photons to flow freely and make the universe transparent, though the exact timing of this is uncertain.

Joris Witstok at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Hans Colleugues used James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study a galaxy called JADES-GS-Z13-1-LA. The galaxy is seen 330 million years after the Big Bang, making it one of the earliest Nown galaxies in the universe.

Ultraviolet light from the galaxy suggests that it was surrounded by a bubble about 200,000 light years across, which may be the result of its star light interacting with the surrounding cosmic hydrogen. Seeing evidence of this so early in the universe is “beyond even our wildest expectations,” says Witstok.

Michele Trenti at the University of Melbourne agrees that observations are in line with the process of cosmic reionization. “It’s both surprising and exciting,” says Trenti. “I would not expect the ultraviolet light that was emitted from this galaxy when JWST. The cold neutral hydrogen gas that we expected ALD to surround the galaxy should have blocked the photons. We are witnessing the oset of the reionization.

The nature of the small galaxy itself is not quite clear; It might shine bright because a population of massive warm and young stars or a powerful central black hole. “This would be the earliest known proof of a super -massive black hole in the middle of a galaxy,” says Trenti.

While astronomers have seen others are later galaxies with a similar bubble around them, Jades-GS-Z13-1-LA is the earliest known example. “It’s a benchmark,” says Richard Ellis at University College London. “It tells us that this galaxy must have been around for a while, pushing it a little further back to the beginning when galaxies first got out of the dark.

JWST was able to the aarth secrets of this galaxy only by staring at it for a relatively long time, about 19 hours. Witstok is hopeful that we can soon see other evidence of cosmic reionization. “We have a little candidates,” he says. “We might find it even more [back in time]Or maybe this is the most extreme it will be. “