Hubble
This composite visible and near-infrared image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in August 2014 as a part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS). This deep field shows covers a tiny patch of the night sky and yet shows countless galaxies.
It’s from this image that scientists discovered four galaxies that appear as they existed just 500 million years after the Big Bang: GN-z9-1, GNz-10.1, GNz10-2, and GN-z10-3. These exceptionally compact and bright galaxies are more luminous than anything previously seen at such an early epoch, challenging our understanding of the early universe and its formation.
This image shows an ultra-bright young galaxy known as GN-z10-3, discovered in the Hubble GOODS North field (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey).
Webb
In March 2024, the James Webb Space Telescope revisited this patch of sky using its Near-Infrared Camera. The image covers the upper portion of the GOODS-North deep field that was captured by Hubble in 2014.
What’s remarkable is that we’ve found an even more distant galaxy than could be seen with the Hubble Space Telescope: GN-z11. The galaxy appears as it existed just 430 million years (!!) after the Big Bang. The image reveals an extended component that traces around the source galaxy. The colors observed within the galaxy’s central condensation are consistent with those of an accretion disk surrounding a black hole (!!). It really is quite a remarkable catch by Webb.
This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows a portion of the GOODS-North field of galaxies. At lower right, a pullout highlights the galaxy GN-z11, which is seen at a time just 430 million years after the big bang.
Why the weird names?
The scientific names for galaxies, stars, and other deep sky objects are very systematic. This is done so as to avoid confusion with any other point of light in the night sky.
The names of these young, distant galaxies can be broken down as such:
- GN = GOODS-North
- z9-1 = first galaxy in image with a redshift of 9. The larger the redshift, the redder and more distant the galaxy appears to us.
Sources
Images: Hubble GOODS-North, Webb GOODS-North, GN-z10-3, GN-z11