A new study of distant galaxies conducted with the James Webb space telescope reveals a stellar formation and growth of black holes never seen during the “cosmic noon.”
It is a mysterious era that occurred between 2 and 3 billion years after the Big Bang, when galaxies such as the Milky Way experienced intense accelerated growth.
The results of the Miri EGS Galaxy and AGN (MEGA) study will be published soon by Astrophysical Journal magazine. A prepayment of findings is now available in Arxiv (PDF).
According to researchers from the University of Kansas (Ku), galaxies produced new stars with such intensity during the “cosmic noon” that all current galaxies must half of their star mass to forged stars during this time.
Using the much greater power of the JWST in the middle infrared spectrum, the team led by the KU observed through this cosmic powder galaxies distant enough so that the light that came from its stars would have come out during the cosmic noon, 10,000 million years ago.
They sought to learn more about the galaxies with active galactic nuclei (or supermassive black holes that grow rapidly) in a deep field rich in galaxies near the constellation of the main Osa, considered a “clean window” for extragalactic observation, called the “extended Groth strip”.
10,000 galaxies in an area of the moon diameter
“The extended Groth strip is a region of heaven that has become one of the main JWST fields,” said Principal researcher Allison Kirkpatrick, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy in Ku, who directed the research work.
“I participated in the proposal that received the first data from the James Webb space telescope. This survey is called Ceers (early cosmic evolution science). We obtained the first images of the JWST, and were from the extended Groth strip. Within this region, we can observe some 10,000 galaxies, despite the fact that the area has approximately the diameter of the moon.”
The main author Bren Backhaus, postdoctoral researcher in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas (KU), thoroughly analyzed the impressive amount of new JWST data and worked with unprocessed images to produce useful scientific images and useful information for the astronomical community.
“In theory, a galaxy could appear in one image and not in another because we use different filters,” Backhaus explained. “It’s like taking photographs using only red, blue or green light, which eventually create very beautiful images. But due to the slight movement of the telescope, the images are a bit unbalanced. The first step is simply to receive the images. The next step is to correct known problems of the telescope. For example, there is a known scratch that appears in all the images and there are dead pixels. The first task is to correct, at least, the first task is to correct. Software that ignores those pixels. “
Then Backhaus aligned the images separately, giving them a reference of how they should overlap. His last step was to combine the images correctly with each other.
Until now, the collaboration led by the KU has registered 67 hours in command of the JWST. The project recently received financing for another cycle, which is equivalent to about 30 hours more telescope. The data will be used in the KU for research and training for a while before being publicly available.
