Bright light detected by NASA’s James Webb Telescope (JWST) three billion light-years from Earth would be the first sighting of a dying star by the $10 billion telescope.
Formally known as a supernova, it’s the “last hurrah” that occurs when the star runs out of fuel. This drops the pressure, in which the cosmic object expands to at least five times the mass of our sun – which is the size of around 333,000 Earths – then explodes, releasing tons of debris and particles .
The stellar explosion occurred in the galaxy, SDSS.J141930.11+5251593, where JWST took images showing light from an object fading over a period of five days – a clue that sparked the theory of a supernova.
What’s also exciting is the fact that JWST was not designed to find and detect new transients, Mike Engesser of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), who first reported on Inverse, told Inverse. Discovery.
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Not only did James Webb spot a supernova, but astronomers are baffled by the find because the telescope isn’t designed to find dying stars
The potential supernova was captured with the NIRCam instrument which is designed to detect light from early stars and galaxies using a wide range of infrared light.
NIRCam is equipped with coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects around a central bright object, such as star systems or in this case, stellar explosions.
JWST was investigating the distant galaxy, so capturing the supernova was a fluke, Engesser told Inverse.
The dying star, which appears as a small bright spot in images, was not present in images of the galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011.
The team used software to analyze James Webb’s image against the same image taken by Hubble in 2011, which is how they identified the bright little light.
Engesser and his team used software designed to spot the differences in the photos that led to the bright spot.
JWST has proven to be money well spent, even just a week after going live. Not only did he deliver his first official deep space images on July 12, but a week later scientists announced he had discovered a 13.5 billion year old galaxy that is now the oldest of the universe as seen by human eyes.
The galaxy, called GLASS-z13 (GN-z13), formed just 300 million years after the Big Bang that occurred 13.8 billion years ago.
The previous record holder, discovered by the Hubble telescope in 2015, was GN-z11 which dates back 400 million years after the birth of the universe.
JWST captured a glimpse of GN-z13 using its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, capable of detecting light from early stars and galaxies.
JWST has proven to be money well spent, even just a week after going live. Not only did he deliver his first official deep space images on July 12, but a week later scientists announced he had discovered a 13.5 billion year old galaxy that is now the oldest of the universe as seen by human eyes.
While investigating the area are GN-z13, JWST also spotted GN-z11.
Scientists from the Harvard and Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics in Massachusetts note that although they are both ancient, each of the galaxies is very small, reports New Scientist.
GN-z13 is about 1600 light-years away and GLASS z-11 is 2300 light-years away.
This is compared to our own Milky Way which is about 100,000 light years in diameter.
The paper, published in arXiv, notes that the two galaxies have a mass of one billion suns, as they formed shortly after the Big Bang.
The team suggests this happened as galaxies grew and engulfed stars in the region.
“These two objects already impose new constraints on the evolution of galaxies at the time of cosmic dawn,” explain the researchers in the article.
“They indicate that the discovery of GNz11 was not just a matter of luck, but that there likely exists a population of UV light sources with very high star-forming efficiencies capable of compiling.”
James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope designed to detect light from early stars and galaxies
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that could help unlock the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to observe the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even moons and planets in our solar system.
The vast telescope, which has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn), is seen as the successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope
The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of around 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).
It is the largest and most powerful orbital space telescope in the world, capable of observing 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will be working in tandem for some time.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 via Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It circles the Earth at a speed of approximately 17,000 mph (27,300 km/h) in low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 340 miles.