How can young galaxies in the early universe have old stars? That’s the question a team of astronomers set out to answer using the JWST as a probe. They first discovered the massive objects in 2022 and are still working on an explanation for these things. The infrared-sensitive JWST recently focused on three of these … Read more
This infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was taken by the Near-Infrared Camera for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey program – Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA) For two years, an international team has been studying what astronomers call … Read more
Supermassive black holes appear to be present at the center of every galaxy, dating back to some of the earliest galaxies in the universe. And we have no idea how they got there. It shouldn’t be possible for them to grow from supernova remnants to supermassive sizes so quickly. And we are not aware of … Read more
Small, primordial black holes that formed in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang may have had company, in the form of even smaller supercharged black holes with the mass of a rhinoceros that quickly evaporated. A team of researchers has theorized that these tiny rhino black holes, which would represent an … Read more
Starts With A Bang podcast #106 – the tough hunt for Planet Nine – Big Think Continue to article Starts with a bang – June 8, 2024 Beyond Neptune are some fascinating celestial bodies left over from the formation of our solar system. Could any of them be truly spectacular? This image shows an illustration … Read more
Astronomers have discovered carbon in a galaxy seen just 350 million years after the Big Bang, in observations that raise the possibility that conditions for life were present almost from the beginning of time. The observations, made by the James Webb Space Telescope, suggest that huge amounts of carbon were released when the first generation … Read more
The hunt for missing, tiny black holes left over from the Big Bang may be about to heat up. Just when the trail for such small black holes seemed to have gone cold, an international team of scientists has found clues in quantum physics that could reopen the case. One of the reasons the hunt … Read more