                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2024 June 24
    A dark field is shown filled with smudges that are distant galaxies.
      One smudge is expanded in an inset box. This box shows a reddish
       elongated object. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                    JADES-GS-z14-0: A New Farthest Object
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B.
          Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA)

   Explanation: What if we could see back to the beginning of the
   universe? We could see galaxies forming. But what did galaxies look
   like back then? These questions took a step forward recently with the
   release of the analysis of a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image
   that included the most distant object yet discovered. Most galaxies
   formed at about 3 billion years after the Big Bang, but some formed
   earlier. Pictured in the inset box is JADES-GS-z14-0, a faint smudge of
   a galaxy that formed only 300 million years after the universe started.
   In technical terms, this galaxy lies at the record redshift of z=14.32,
   and so existed when the universe was only one fiftieth of the its
   present age. Practically all of the objects in the featured photograph
   are galaxies.

                      Tomorrow's picture: space thingy
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

