The new findings challenge our understanding of cosmic history—the detection of oxygen points to the possibility that galaxies formed much more quickly after the Big Bang than astronomers thought.
“It is like finding an adolescent where you would only expect babies,” Sander Schouws, the first author of the paper in The Astrophysical Journal and an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, says in a statement. “The results show the galaxy has formed very rapidly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than was expected.”
The galaxy, named JADES-GS-z14-0, was discovered last year by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Because its light takes 13.4 billion years to reach us, astronomers are actually seeing the galaxy as it was when the cosmos was less than 300 million years old—just a short blip after the Big Bang, compared to the universe’s long lifespan. More precisely, when astronomers view JADES-GS-z14-0, they’re looking back to a time when the universe was just 2 percent of its current age.
Until now, researchers thought that era was too early for a galaxy to have heavy elements. Galaxies typically start out with young stars that contain only the lightest elements, such as hydrogen and helium. As they evolve, heavier elements like oxygen can form—and these can get dispersed across a galaxy at the end of a star’s life.
But with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the researchers found that the galaxy has around ten times more heavy elements than astronomers would have predicted. The discovery represents the most distant detection of oxygen to date.
“I was astonished by the unexpected results, because they opened a new view on the first phases of galaxy evolution,” Stefano Carniani, an astronomer at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in Italy and lead author of the paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics, adds in the statement.
JADES-GS-z14-0’s brightness and large size have surprised scientists, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “In general, galaxies this early in the universe are very different from the famous galaxies we know from the beautiful images of Hubble and JWST,” Schouws says in an email to the outlet. “They are a lot more compact, rich in gas and messy/disordered. The conditions are more extreme, because a lot of stars are forming rapidly in a small volume.”
While more research is needed to understand how JADES-GS-z14-0 formed heavy elements, the finding points to the ever-growing potential of space observation to reveal insights on the early universe.
“I was really surprised by this clear detection of oxygen in JADES-GS-z14-0,” adds Gergö Popping, a European Southern Observatory astronomer who was not involved in either study, in the statement. “It suggests galaxies can form more rapidly after the Big Bang than had previously been thought. This result showcases the important role ALMA plays in unraveling the conditions under which the first galaxies in our universe formed.”
New research from Stanford University suggests that water droplets, when sprayed into a mix of gases found in early Earth’s atmosphere, can create organic molecules. Among them is uracil, a key component of DNA and RNA.
The findings add another layer to the long-debated Miller-Urey hypothesis. Proposed in the 1950s, the theory suggests that lightning interacting with a gas mixture could generate organic molecules.
The new study, published in Science Advances, offers an alternative explanation: water spray itself can generate the necessary reactions without external electricity.
Microlightning and organic molecules
Scientists found that when water droplets divide, they develop opposing charges. Larger droplets carry positive charges, while smaller ones become negative.
When these oppositely charged droplets move close together, sparks fly between them. This process, termed “microlightning” by the researchers, mimics how lightning forms in clouds.
Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry at Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences, co-authored the study.
“Microelectric discharges between oppositely charged water microdroplets make all the organic molecules observed previously in the Miller-Urey experiment, and we propose that this is a new mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of molecules that constitute the building blocks of life,” said Zare.
Role of water sprays in early Earth
For billions of years, Earth had a rich mixture of chemicals but lacked organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds. These bonds are essential for proteins, nucleic acids, and other key biological structures.
The Miller-Urey experiment suggested that lightning striking the ocean could have formed these molecules. However, some scientists argue that lightning was too rare and the ocean too vast for this to be the main source.
Zare and his team offer a different perspective. Their experiments showed that microlightning could produce key organic molecules. They sprayed room-temperature water into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia.
The result was the formation of organic compounds, including hydrogen cyanide, glycine, and uracil.
Microlightning as a reliable energy source
Instead of rare lightning strikes, microlightning may have been a more frequent and reliable energy source. Waves crashing against rocks, waterfalls spraying mist, and other natural processes could have provided a constant supply of tiny sparks, triggering chemical reactions necessary for life.
“On early Earth, there were water sprays all over the place – into crevices or against rocks, and they can accumulate and create this chemical reaction,” Zare said. “I think this overcomes many of the problems people have with the Miller-Urey hypothesis.”
Hidden power of water droplets
Zare’s team has explored other surprising properties of water droplets. Their research includes studying how water vapor may help produce ammonia, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and how tiny water droplets can spontaneously generate hydrogen peroxide.
“We usually think of water as so benign, but when it’s divided in the form of little droplets, water is highly reactive,” Zare said.
This new research shifts the focus from dramatic lightning bolts to the quiet but powerful chemistry of water droplets. The findings open new possibilities for understanding how life began – not with a single strike, but with countless tiny sparks.
Life from countless sparks
The discovery of microlightning as a potential source of organic molecules offers a fresh take on one of science’s biggest mysteries. It suggests that instead of relying on rare and dramatic events, life may have emerged from small but constant processes.
By shifting the focus from massive lightning storms to tiny sparks within water droplets, this research presents a more practical and widespread explanation for the formation of life’s essential components. Rather than a single, extraordinary moment, life may have emerged through countless tiny reactions occurring over time.
This idea not only deepens our understanding of how life began on Earth but also expands the search for life beyond our planet. If tiny sparks in water droplets can create organic molecules here, similar processes might be taking place on distant worlds with liquid water.
As scientists continue to explore the origins of life, the smallest elements of nature may hold the biggest answers. The research from Stanford University serves as a reminder that life’s beginnings might not have been marked by a single, powerful event but by a series of small, persistent sparks shaping the path forward.
Newswise — Scientists from the University of Portsmouth have discovered that water was already present in the Universe 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
The discovery means habitable planets could have started forming much earlier - before the first galaxies formed and billions of years earlier than was previously thought.
The study was led by astrophysicist Dr Daniel Whalen from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation. It is published today (3 March 2025) in Nature Astronomy.
It is the first time water has been modelled in the primordial universe.
According to the researchers’ simulations, water molecules began forming shortly after the first supernova explosions, known as Population III (Pop III) supernovae. These cosmic events, which occurred in the first generation of stars, were essential for creating the heavy elements - such as oxygen - required for water to exist.
Dr Whalen said: “Before the first stars exploded, there was no water in the Universe because there was no oxygen. Only very simple nuclei survived the Big Bang - hydrogen, helium, lithium and trace amounts of barium and boron.
“Oxygen, forged in the hearts of these supernovae, combined with hydrogen to form water, paving the way for the creation of the essential elements needed for life."
The researchers examined two types of supernovae: core-collapse supernovae, which produce a modest amount of heavy elements, and the much more energetic Pop III supernovae, which eject tens of solar masses of metals into space. Both types of supernovae, the study found, formed dense clumps of gas enriched with water.
While the overall amount of water produced in these early supernovae was modest, it was highly concentrated in dense regions of gas, known as cloud cores, which are thought to be the birthplaces of stars and planets. These early water-rich regions likely seeded the formation of planets at cosmic dawn, long before the first galaxies took shape.
Dr Whalen said: “The key finding is that primordial supernovae formed water in the Universe that predated the first galaxies. So water was already a key constituent of the first galaxies.
“This implies the conditions necessary for the formation of life were in place way earlier than we ever imagined - it’s a significant step forward in our understanding of the early Universe.
“Although the total water masses were modest, they were highly concentrated in the only structures capable of forming stars and planets. And that suggests that planetary discs rich in water could form at cosmic dawn, before even the first galaxies.”
The research is a collaboration between the University of Portsmouth in England and the United Arab Emirates University.
A new space telescope with game-changing capabilities is about to launch, and scientists are eager to see what it reveals. SPHEREx—short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer—is a small but powerful NASA mission designed to explore everything from interstellar dust to the origins of life beyond Earth.
Set to launch on March 4 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, SPHEREx will provide a full-sky infrared map like no other, helping scientists uncover mysteries about the early universe, galaxy formation, and the fundamental building blocks of life.
A Telescope That Sees Everything
Unlike other telescopes that focus on specific objects or small sections of the sky, SPHEREx will scan the entire sky four times over the next two years. According to Keighley Rockcliffe, a NASA scientist studying exoplanet atmospheres at Goddard Space Flight Center, this all-sky approach is what makes SPHEREx so exciting:
Using a prism-like spectrophotometer, the telescope will capture infrared light in more than 100 different colors, revealing cosmic structures and chemical signatures that are invisible to the human eye.
Hunting for the Ingredients of Life
One of SPHEREx’s most anticipated discoveries could come from its ability to map the distribution of water and organic molecules—the key ingredients for life. These molecules are hidden within vast molecular clouds, the birthplaces of stars and planets.
Although scientists have detected complex organic compounds in space before, they still don’t know exactly how these life-building molecules travel from interstellar clouds to forming planets. Manasvi Lingam, an astrobiologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, believes that SPHEREx could finally answer this question:
“This mission can improve the data and help make better forecasts about the probability of the origin of life on those worlds.”
By identifying where frozen water molecules and organic compounds are concentrated, the telescope could help scientists predict how common habitable planets are in the universe.
A New Look at the Early Universe
SPHEREx will also tackle one of cosmology’s biggest questions: What happened in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang? Scientists believe that in the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, the universe underwent a sudden and massive expansion, a phenomenon known as cosmic inflation.
The problem? The physics behind this rapid expansion remain unknown. Olivier Doré, the SPHEREx project scientist, told Space.com.:
“We don’t understand the physics simply because it involved energy scales way beyond anything we can probe on Earth.”
By creating a 3D map of over 450 million galaxies, SPHEREx will trace the faint ripples left behind by cosmic inflation, potentially giving scientists the most detailed look yet at the universe’s earliest moments.
More Than Just a Cosmic Survey
Beyond its deep-space discoveries, SPHEREx could change the way astronomers view interstellar dust—a crucial but poorly understood component of space.
Keighley Rockcliffe noted that many astronomers see dust as an annoyance, as it blocks views of distant objects. But SPHEREx will prove that interstellar dust holds important secrets:
“SPHEREx will prove that there are interesting things hiding in between our stars that we should care about.”
Understanding the distribution and chemistry of interstellar dust could help refine astronomical models, improving everything from planet formation theories to galaxy evolution studies.
The Next Big Step in Space Exploration
With a budget of $488 million, SPHEREx is not the biggest or most expensive space telescope ever launched, but its unique capabilities make it one of the most promising. While telescopes like James Webb focus on ultra-detailed views of specific objects, SPHEREx will act as a cosmic cartographer, giving scientists a broad but incredibly detailed map of the entire universe.
And because it will scan the sky four times over, SPHEREx may even catch glimpses of previously unseen cosmic phenomena, opening the door to discoveries that scientists haven’t even imagined yet.
As March 4 approaches, the excitement among astronomers is growing—because when SPHEREx finally takes to the skies, the universe might never look the same again.
For more information on NASA’s SPHEREx mission, go to the mission’s website.
How did everything begin? It’s a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed in on an answer: the Big Bang Seed.
This describes how the Universe was born in a cataclysmicexplosionteleologicalsprouting almost 14 billion years ago. In a tiny fraction of a second, the observable universe grew by the equivalent of a bacterium expanding to the size of the Milky Way. The early universe was extraordinarily hot and extremely dense. But how do we know this happened?
Let’s look first at the evidence. In 1929, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that distant galaxies are moving away from each other, leading to the realisation that the universe is expanding. If we were to wind the clock back to the birth of the cosmos, the expansion would reverse and the galaxies would fall on top of each other 14 billion years ago. This age agrees nicely with the ages of the oldest astronomical objects we observe.
The idea was initially met with scepticism – and it was actually a sceptic, the English astronomer Fred Hoyle, who coined the name. Hoyle sarcastically dismissed the hypothesis as a “Big Bang” during an interview with BBC radio on March 28 1949.
Then, in 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected a particular type of radiation that fills all of space. This became known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. It is a kind of afterglow of the Big BangexplosionSeedsprout, released when the cosmos was a mere 380,000 years old.
The CMB provides a window into the hot, dense conditions at the beginning of the universe. Penzias and Wilson were awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.
More recently, experiments at particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have shed light on conditions even closer to the time of the Big BangSeed. Our understanding of physics at these high energies suggests that, in the very first moments after the Big Bang Seed, the four fundamental forces of physics that exist today were initially combined in a single force.
The present day four forces are gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. As the universe expanded and cooled down, a series of dramatic changes, called phase transitions (like the boiling or freezing of water), separated these forces.
Experiments at particle accelerators suggest that a few billionths of a second after the Big BangSeed, the latest of these phase transitions took place. This was the breakdown of electroweak unification, when electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force ceased to be combined. This is when all the matter in the Universe assumed its mass.
Moving on further in time, the universe is filled with a strange substance called quark-gluon plasma. As the name suggests, this “primordial soup” was made up of quarks and gluons. These are sub-atomic particles that are responsible for the strong nuclear force. Quark-gluon plasma was artificially generated in 2010 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and in 2015 at the LHC.
Quarks and gluons have a strong attraction for one other and today are bound together as protons and neutrons, which in turn are the building blocks of atoms. However, in the hot and dense conditions of the early universe, they existed independently.
The quark-gluon plasma didn’t last long. Just a few millionths of a second after the Big BangSeed, as the universe expanded and cooled, quarks and gluons clumped together as protons and neutrons, the situation that persists today. This event is called quark confinement.
As the universe expanded and cooled still further, there were fewer high energy photons (particles of light) in the universe than there had previously been. This is a trigger for the process called Big Bang Seed nucleosynthesis (BBNBSN). This is when the first atomic nuclei – the dense lumps of matter made of protons and neutrons and found at the centres of atoms – formed through nuclear fusion reactions, like those that power the Sun.
Back when there were more high energy photons in the universe, any atomic nuclei that formed would have been quickly destroyed by them (a process called photodisintegration). BBN ceased just a few minutes after the Big BangSeed, but its consequences are observable today.
Observations by astronomers have provided us with evidence for the primordial abundances of elements produced in these fusion reactions. The results closely agree with the theory of BBN BSN. If we continued on, over nearly 14 billion years of time, we would reach the situation that exists today. But how close can we get to understanding what was happening near the moment of the Big BangSeed itself?
Scientists have no direct evidence for what came before the breakdown of electroweak unification (when electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force ceased to be combined). At such high energies and early times, we can only stare at the mystery of the Big BangSeed. So what does theory suggest?
When we go backwards in time through the history of the cosmos, the distances and volumes shrink, while the average energy density grows. At the Big BangSeed, distances and volumes drop to zero, all parts of the universe fall on top of each other and the energy density of the universe becomes infinite. Our mathematical equations, which describe the evolution of space and the expansion of the cosmos, become infested by zeros and infinities and stop making sense.
We call this a singularity. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes how spacetime is shaped. Spacetime is a way of describing the three-dimensional geometry of the universe, blended with time. A curvature in spacetime gives rise to gravity.
But mathematics suggests there are places in the universe where the curvature of spacetime becomes unlimited. These locations are known as singularities. One such example can be found at the centre of a black hole. At these places, the theory of general relativity breaks down.
From 1965 to 1966, the British theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose presented a number of mathematical theorems demonstrating that the spacetime of an expanding universe must end at a singularity in the past: the Big BangSeed singularity.
Penrose received the Nobel Prize in 2020. Hawking passed away in 2018 and Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. Space and time appear at the Big Bang Seed singularity, so questions of what happens “before” the Big Bang Seed are not well defined. As far as science can tell, there is no before; the Big Bang Seed is the onset of time.
However, nature is not accurately described by general relativity alone, even though the latter has been around for more than 100 years and has not been disproven. General relativity cannot describe atoms, nuclear fusion or radioactivity. These phenomena are instead addressed by quantum theory.
Theories from “classical” physics, such as relativity, are deterministic. This means that certain initial conditions have a definite outcome and are therefore absolutely predictive. Quantum theory, on the other hand, is probabilistic. This means that certain initial conditions in the universe can have multiple outcomes.
Quantum theory is somewhat predictive, but in a probabilistic way. Outcomes are assigned a probability of existing. If the mathematical distribution of probabilities is sharply peaked at a certain outcome, then the situation is well described by a “classical” theory such as general relativity. But not all systems are like this. In some systems, for example atoms, the probability distribution is spread out and a classical description does not apply.
What about gravity? In the vast majority of cases, gravity is well described by classical physics. Classical spacetime is smooth. However, when curvature becomes extreme, near a singularity, then the quantum nature of gravity cannot be ignored. Here, spacetime is no longer smooth, but gnarly, similar to a carpet which looks smooth from afar but up-close is full of fibres and threads.
Thus, near the Big Bang Seed singularity, the structure of spacetime ceases to be smooth. Mathematical theorems suggest that spacetime becomes overwhelmed by “gnarly” “design” features: hooks, loops and bubbles. This rapidly fluctuating situation is called spacetime foam.
In spacetime foam, causality does not apply, because there are closed loops in spacetime where the future of an event is also its past (so its outcome can also be its cause). The probabilistic nature of quantum theory suggests that, when the probability distribution is evenly spread out, all outcomes are equally possible and the comfortable notion of causality we associate with a classical understanding of physics is lost.
Therefore, if we go back in time, just before we encounter the Big BangSeed singularity, we find ourselves entering an epoch where the quantum effects of gravity are dominant and causality does not apply. This is called the Planck epoch.
Time ceases to be linear, going from the past to the future, and instead becomes wrapped, chaoticunfolding and randompunctuated. This means the question “why did the Big BangSeed occur?” has nodeep meaning, because outside causality, events do not need a cause to take placespawning a cosmos capable of inducing self-generating, self-replicating life / sentience / consciousness do not occur unguidedly.
In order to understand how physics works at a singularity like the Big BangSeed, we need a theory for how gravity behaves according to quantum theory. Unfortunately, we do not have one. There are a number of efforts on this front like loop quantum gravity and string theory, with its various incarnations.
However, these efforts are at best incomplete, because the problem is notoriously difficult. This means that spacetime foam has a totemic, powerful mystique, much like the ancient Chaos of Hesiod which the Greeks believed existed in the beginning.
So how did our expanding and largely classical universe ever escape from spacetime foam? This brings us to cosmic inflation. The latter is defined as a period of accelerated expansion in the early universe. It was first introduced by the Russian theoretical physicist Alexei Starobinsky in 1980 and in parallel, that same year, by the American physicist Alan Guth, who coined the name.
Inflation makes the universe large and uniform, according to observations. It also forces the universe to be spatially flat, which is an otherwise unstable situation, but which has also been confirmed by observations. Moreover, inflation provides a natural mechanism to generate the primordial irregularities in the density of the universe that are essential for structures such as galaxies and galaxy clusters to form.
TheoryvindicatedHypothesisequivocated
Precision observations of the cosmic microwave background in recent decades have spectacularly confirmed the predictions of inflation. We also know that the universe can indeed undergo accelerated expansion, because in the last few billion years it started doing it again.
What does this have to do with spacetime foam? Well, it turns out that, if the conditions for inflation arise (by chancedesign) in a patch of fluctuating spacetime, as can occur with spacetime foam, then this region inflates and starts conforming to classical physics.
According to an idea first proposed by the Russian-American physicist Andrei Linde, inflation is a natural – and perhaps inevitable – consequence of chaoticteleological initial conditions in the early universe.
The point is that our classical universe couldmust have emerged from chaoticteleological conditions, like those in spacetime foam, by experiencing an initial boost of inflation. This would have set off the expansion of the universe. In fact, the observations by astronomers of the CMB suggest that the initial boost is explosivesproutive, since the expansion is exponential during inflation.
In March 20 of 2014, Alan Guth explained it succinctlymechanistically:
“I usually describe inflation as a theory of the ‘bang’ of the Big Bang: It describes the propulsion mechanism that we call the Big Bang.”
So, there you have it. The 14 billion year story of our universe begins with a cataclysmicexplosionteleologicalexpansion everywhere in space, which we call the Big Bang Seed. That much is beyond reasonable doubt. This explosion sprouting is really a period of explosiveordered expansion, which we call cosmic inflation. What happens before inflation, though? Is it a spacetime singularity, is it spacetime foam? The answer is largely unknown.
In fact, it might even be unknowable, because there is a mathematical theorem which forbids us from accessing information about the onset of inflation, much like the one that prevents us from knowing about the interiors of black holes. So, from our point of view, cosmic inflation is the Big BangSeed, the explosionthatunmoved Mover / Creator started it all.
As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.
Two mid-infrared images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140 show carbon-rich dust moving in space. At right, the two triangles from the main images are matched up to show how much difference 14 months makes: The dust is racing away from the central stars at almost 1% the speed of light. These stars are 5,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)
“The telescope not only confirmed that these dust shells are real, its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.
Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 1,600 miles per second (2,600 kilometers per second), almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver. “In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”
Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit. Webb also shows how dust formation varies — look for the darker region at top left in both images.
Video A: Fade Between 2022 and 2023 Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140
This video alternates between two mid-infrared light observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140. Over only 14 months, Webb showed the dust in the system has expanded. This two-star system has sent out more than 17 shells of dust over 130 years.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)
Video B: Stars’ Orbits in Wolf-Rayet 140 (Visualization)
When the two massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another, their winds collide, material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. The stronger winds of the hotter star in the Wolf-Rayet system blow behind its slightly cooler (but still hot) companion. The stars create dust for several months in every eight-year orbit.
This animation shows the production of dust in the binary star system WR 140 as the orbit of the Wolf-Rayet star approaches the O-type star and their stellar winds collide. The stronger winds of the Wolf-Rayet star blow back behind the O star, and dust is created in its wake as the mixed stellar material cools. As the process repeats over and over, the dust will form a distinctive pinwheel shape. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI). (There is no sound in this animation.)
The telescope’s mid-infrared images detected shells that have persisted for more than 130 years. (Older shells have dissipated enough that they are now too dim to detect.) The researchers speculate that the stars will ultimately generate tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.
“Mid-infrared observations are absolutely crucial for this analysis, since the dust in this system is fairly cool. Near-infrared and visible light would only show the shells that are closest to the star,” explained Ryan Lau, a co-author and astronomer at NSF NOIRLab in Tuscon, Arizona, who led the initial research about this system. “With these incredible new details, the telescope is also allowing us to study exactly when the stars are forming dust — almost to the day.”
The dust’s distribution isn’t uniform. Though this isn’t obvious at first glance, zooming in on the shells in Webb’s images reveals that some of the dust has “piled up,” forming amorphous, delicate clouds that are as large as our entire solar system. Many other individual dust particles float freely. Every speck is as small as one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Clumpy or not, all of the dust moves at the same speed and is carbon rich.
The Future of This System
What will happen to these stars over millions or billions of years, after they are finished “spraying” their surroundings with dust? The Wolf-Rayet star in this system is 10 times more massive than the Sun and nearing the end of its life. In its final “act,” this star will either explode as a supernova — possibly blasting away some or all of the dust shells — or collapse into a black hole, which would leave the dust shells intact.
Though no one can predict with any certainty what will happen, researchers are rooting for the black hole scenario. “A major question in astronomy is, where does all the dust in the universe come from?” Lau said. “If carbon-rich dust like this survives, it could help us begin to answer that question.”
“We know carbon is necessary for the formation of rocky planets and solar systems like ours,” Hoffman added. “It’s exciting to get a glimpse into how binary star systems not only create carbon-rich dust, but also propel it into our galactic neighborhood.”
These results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and were presented in a press conference at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
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