The James Webb Space Telescope has detected patches of carbon dust in the early universe

During his first year of observations, he celebrated by posting a photo of Rou Ophiuchi, James Webb Space Telescope Observed celestial bodies near and far. From exoplanets to planets of the solar system but also nebulae and distant galaxies. The ability to observe in the near and mid-infrared allows us to have different targets and gather new information to improve our understanding of the universe.

One of the latest news regarding JWST extension linked to the surveillance campaign known as Smell (or the Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey JWST). Developed over a period of 32 days of observations, this campaign works to detect particularly distant and faint galaxies. It was during this period that existence carbon dust granules In a high area redshift (hence shortly after the Big Bang). This is what we know.

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected grains of carbon dust in the early universe

As mentioned in the initial analysis By ESA, NASA and CSA, thanks JADES surveillance campaign It was possible to observe the part of the sky known as GOODS-South. In the past, the Hubble Space Telescope also conducted research in this area, but thanks to the potential JWST extensionMore details can be noted.

In this “small” In the sky, up to 45,000 galaxies can be seen (with potentially billions of stars and exoplanets). In the region the astronomers analyzed, the galaxy JADES-GS-z6, they discovered a chemical signature of Carbon-rich dust particles. The interesting part is that it is an area with redshift of 7 (approximately) and thus could be calmed down a billion years after the Big Bang. This is a region of the sky about 1 x 1 second wide.

On other occasions, signatures of this type have been found and can be associated in particular with presence Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, but in this case the time elapsed was much more and thus the regions were recent. However, scientists believe that it is unlikely that this type of molecule.

more likely than James Webb Space Telescope Discover another type of carbon-containing molecule. For example, it could be grains of graphite or even diamonds (depending on how the atoms are arranged in space). Their production can be produced by stars or supernovae.

Researchers are curious to understand how cosmic dust interacts over very long timescales or in the early stages of the universe. This will also allow us to understand how they are assembled into complex structures (even, for example, forming planetary systems).

Le observation was used NIRCam tool (Near IR) with filters F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F335M, F356W, F410M, F444W. These wavelengths correlate at 0.9 µm, 1.15 µm, 1.5 µm, 2.0 µm, 2.77 µm, 3.55 µm, 3.56 µm, 4.1 µm, and 4.44 µm. The first three were given blue, the second three green and the last red.