Topic description and stories

False-colour JWST image of a small fraction of the GOODS South field, with JADES-GS-z7-01-QU highlighted

Astronomers spot oldest ‘dead’ galaxy yet observed

06 Mar 2024

A galaxy that suddenly stopped forming new stars more than 13 billion years ago has been observed by astronomers.

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This image shows the galaxy EGSY8p7, a bright galaxy in the early Universe where light emission is seen from, among other things, excited hydrogen atoms – Lyman-α emission.

Galaxy mergers solve early Universe mystery

18 Jan 2024

A team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to reveal, for the first time, what...

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The GN-z11 galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomers detect oldest black hole ever observed

17 Jan 2024

Researchers have discovered the oldest black hole ever observed, dating from the dawn of the universe, and found that it is ‘eating’ its host galaxy...

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Carbon-based molecules found in atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b

11 Sep 2023

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge has used data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover...

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The image shows a deep galaxy field, featuring thousands of galaxies of various shapes and sizes. A cutout indicates a particular galaxy, known as JADES-GS-z6, which was a research target for this result. It appears as a blurry smudge of blue, red and green.

Webb sees carbon-rich dust grains in the first billion years of cosmic time

19 Jul 2023

For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains in the early universe.

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This infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was taken for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, programme.

Early universe crackled with bursts of star formation, Webb Telescope shows

06 Jun 2023

Among the most fundamental questions in astronomy is: How did the first stars and galaxies form? The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a partnership...

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This image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope highlights the region of study by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES).

Webb telescope reaches new milestone in its search for distant galaxies

09 Dec 2022

New findings confirm that JWST has surpassed the Hubble telescope in its ability to observe the early Universe

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Dust plumes observed being ‘pushed’ into interstellar space by intense starlight

12 Oct 2022

Astronomers have observed directly for the first time how intense light from stars can ‘push’ matter. Researchers from the universities of Cambridge...

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