On November 25, 2024, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have identified five candidates for the earliest galaxies in the universe, observed just 200 million years after the Big Bang. The light from these galaxies has been traveling for approximately 13.6 billion years, suggesting they are now around 34 billion light-years away.
This discovery is part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project, which previously recorded the most distant galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, seen when the universe was 280 million years old. The new galaxies, which are yet to be officially named, are expected to bear the prefix 'GLIMPSE.'
Hakim Atek from the Paris Institute of Astrophysics noted the challenge in estimating the age and formation time of these galaxies, emphasizing that only about 150 million years remain for their formation. He stated, 'With so little time available, there are not many ways you can form galaxies.'
The galaxies are categorized as 'high-redshift' due to the stretching of light wavelengths caused by the universe's expansion. The JWST is now regularly discovering galaxies with redshifts between z = 10 and z = 14, with the newly identified candidates showing redshifts of z = 16 to z = 18.
Team leader Vasily Kokorev indicated that the discovery aligns with a trend of finding more high-luminosity galaxies in the early universe than previously anticipated. The GLIMPSE observations are the deepest obtained to date, aided by the gravitational lensing effect from the Abell S1063 galaxy cluster, approximately 4 billion light-years away.
While gravitational lensing has enabled the detection of these faint galaxies, Kokorev mentioned that further analysis requires spectral data to better understand their characteristics. He highlighted the potential implications of discovering such a high number of galaxies in a small volume.
Atek expressed uncertainty about the JWST's ability to find even earlier galaxies, noting that such discoveries would depend on the number, density, and luminosity of these objects. Kokorev added that detecting fainter galaxies may require significantly more observation time than the GLIMPSE project has utilized.
This research marks the beginning of what is expected to be a series of significant findings from the GLIMPSE project.