International and Australian researchers have confirmed the discovery of four of the oldest galaxies ever observed, dating back 300 to 500 million years after the Big Bang.
In two new papers in the journal Nature Astronomy, image and spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were analysed, the telescope being designed to probe the early universe.
The JWST can observe ancient galaxies and estimate their age by detecting their "redshift" - a phenomenon where wavelengths of light become stretched over unimaginable distances, "shifting" light towards the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
In essence, the more red an object appears to the telescope, the further away it is.
In the first paper, four galaxies were identified through the JWST: JADES-GS-z10-0, JADES-GS-z11-0, JADES-GS-z12-0, and JADES-GS-z13-0.
JADES-GS-z12-0 and JADES-GS-z13-0 are newly discovered galaxies, whereas ultraviolet light from JADES-GS-10-0 and JADES-GS-11-0 had been previously identified by the Hubble Space Telescope.
In the second paper, all four galaxies' existences were confirmed through spectroscopic analysis, meaning they were differentiated by observing their distinctive spectra in ultraviolet light wavelengths.
The additional paper also confirmed the approximate ages of the galaxies, the initial two galaxies spotted by Hubble now believed to have been around when the universe was less than 350 million years old.
Stephane Charlot, a researcher at the Astrophysics Institute of Paris and co-author of the two studies, told AFP that JADES-GS-z13-0 - one of the newest galaxy discoveries - is the farthest galaxy ever observed formed by astronomers and formed an estimated 320 million years after the Big Bang.
NASA estimates the universe to be 13.7 billion years old.
For scale, if the universe was 82 years old - New Zealand's current life expectancy - JADES-GS-z13-0 would have come to be just before the universe turned two.
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