The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found 80 new early supernovas in a small sky area. This gives us a lot more information about how the universe began.
This finding, made in an area the size of a grain of rice held out in front of you, shows how powerful the telescope is.
A New Chapter in the Search for Supernovae
As of 2022, when the JWST started working, scientists had only found a few supernovas from when the universe was about 3.3 billion years old. Thanks to data from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program, we now know about supernovas that happened when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. This includes the supernova that happened when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old, making it the oldest and farthest away ever seen.
Astronomers have found supernovas at distances that were impossible before, thanks to the JWST's unmatched infrared sensitivity. One important reason for these observations is "redshift," when light from faraway objects changes to longer wavelengths.
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Light moves from the blue end of the spectrum to the red end as it moves through the expanding world. This change makes faraway supernovas appear in the infrared range, a great way for the JWST to see them.
Supernovas from when the universe was still "young adult" could be seen by scientists with the Hubble Space Telescope. On the other hand, scientists can see Supernovas when the universe was in its "teens" or even "pre-teens." Scientists hope to be able to look back in time to the "toddler" part of the universe or even to its very early days.
The JADES team compared several pictures taken up to a year apart to find these supernovas. By looking at changes in brightness, they could tell which points of light were stars exploding. With this method, they found about 80 supernovas in a small sky area.
One member of the JADES team, Justin Pierel, said they had gotten their first sample of the high-redshift universe for short-term research. He said their goal is to discover if supernovas far away are very different from those seen in the close universe. The team's study shows that these faraway supernovas resemble those closer to Earth.
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Finding Distant Type Ia Supernovas
Astrophysicists are especially interested in Type Ia supernovas because they can be used to figure out how far away things are in space. At a redshift of 2.9, the team found at least one Type Ia supernova. There was a blast 11.5 billion years ago when the universe was only 2.3 billion years old.
The farthest a Type Ia supernova had ever been seen was at a redshift of 1.95. This Type Ia supernova was just found, and its light started coming to us 11.5 billion years ago. Because of this, it is an essential tool for measuring how fast the world is expanding.
Scientists are excited to find out if the light of Type Ia supernovas changes when they are shifted to very high redshifts. This is very important for their credibility as cosmic masters. Early results show that there isn't a big difference, which backs up current ideas about how the universe is expanding.
Matthew Siebert, an STScI Fellow, said that the early world had many harsh conditions. He said that comparing these supernovas to those in the nearby universe could help us learn more about how stars form and how explosions happen. These findings also help us understand how heavy elements have been added to stars over time.
Siebert also said they give us a new view of the changing universe. He said that in the past, whenever a window like this had been opened, they had found exciting things. He noted that the JWST keeps finding things in the universe that make us think and help us understand it better.
We can see the world differently thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. Scientists are learning new things about how stars and galaxies form and change over time, thanks to their ability to look into the far past. These 80 new early supernovas are just the start of a time when astronomers will make discoveries like never before.
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