NASA’s Webb Sees Galaxy Mysteriously Clearing Fog of Early Universe

The incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed just 330 million years after the big bang, was initially discovered with deep imaging from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera)

Using the unique infrared sensitivity of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the universe’s history. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.

The Webb telescope discovered the incredibly distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1, observed to exist just 330 million years after the big bang, in images taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) as part of the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Researchers used the galaxy’s brightness in different infrared filters to estimate its redshift, which measures a galaxy’s distance from Earth based on how its light has been stretched out during its journey through expanding space.

The NIRCam imaging yielded an initial redshift estimate of 12.9. Seeking to confirm its extreme redshift, an international team lead by Joris Witstok of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, as well as the Cosmic Dawn Center and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, then observed the galaxy using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument.

In the resulting spectrum, the redshift was confirmed to be 13.0. This equates to a galaxy seen just 330 million years after the big bang, a small fraction of the universe’s present age of 13.8 billion years old. But an unexpected feature stood out as well: one specific, distinctly bright wavelength of light, known as Lyman-alpha emission, radiated by hydrogen atoms. This emission was far stronger than astronomers thought possible at this early stage in the universe’s development.

“The early universe was bathed in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen,” explained Roberto Maiolino, a team member from the University of Cambridge and University College London. “Most of this haze was lifted in a process called reionization, which was completed about one billion years after the big bang. GS-z13-1 is seen when the universe was only 330 million years old, yet it shows a surprisingly clear, telltale signature of Lyman-alpha emission that can only be seen once the surrounding fog has fully lifted. This result was totally unexpected by theories of early galaxy formation and has caught astronomers by surprise.”

Before and during the era of reionization, the immense amounts of neutral hydrogen fog surrounding galaxies blocked any energetic ultraviolet light they emitted, much like the filtering effect of colored glass. Until enough stars had formed and were able to ionize the hydrogen gas, no such light — including Lyman-alpha emission — could escape from these fledgling galaxies to reach Earth. The confirmation of Lyman-alpha radiation from this galaxy, therefore, has great implications for our understanding of the early universe.

“We really shouldn’t have found a galaxy like this, given our understanding of the way the universe has evolved,” said Kevin Hainline, a team member from the University of Arizona. “We could think of the early universe as shrouded with a thick fog that would make it exceedingly difficult to find even powerful lighthouses peeking through, yet here we see the beam of light from this galaxy piercing the veil. This fascinating emission line has huge ramifications for how and when the universe reionized.”

The source of the Lyman-alpha radiation from this galaxy is not yet known, but it may include the first light from the earliest generation of stars to form in the universe.

“The large bubble of ionized hydrogen surrounding this galaxy might have been created by a peculiar population of stars — much more massive, hotter, and more luminous than stars formed at later epochs, and possibly representative of the first generation of stars,” said Witstok. A powerful active galactic nucleus, driven by one of the first supermassive black holes, is another possibility identified by the team.

This research was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Astronomers Just Found Oxygen in a Galaxy Born Only 300 Million Years After the Big Bang

James Webb Space Telescope reveals unexpected complex chemistry in primordial galaxy

Scientists have detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Astronomers from two separate research teams made the observations, which were published in the journals Astronomy & Astrophysics and The Astrophysical Journal this month.

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.”

Microlightning from water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

 

Life on Earth may not have begun with a dramatic lightning strike into the ocean. Instead, tiny microlightning charges from crashing waterfalls and breaking waves might have played a crucial role.

​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.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Water, the key ingredient for life, found to have formed shortly after the Big Bang

New research suggests the essential ingredient for life could have emerged billions of years earlier than previously believed

University of Portsmouth

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.

NASA’s New Space Telescope Set to Uncover Secrets of the Big Bang and the Origins of Life

 

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.