A scientist has warned that the James Webb Space Telescope continues to find galaxies that should not exist.
Researchers have warned that six of the oldest and largest galaxies seen by NASA’s Super Telescope appear larger and more mature than they should be given their place in the universe.
The new findings build on previous research where scientists reported that although the universe was born, galaxies like our own Milky Way were mature.
Now a new research paper has emerged that confirms these findings, by “stress testing” galaxies to better understand how they formed.
It suggests that if scientists don’t make a mistake, we might lose some key information about the universe.
“If the masses are right, we’re in uncharted territory,” said Mike Boylan-Kolchin, of the University of Texas at Austin and author of a new paper examining non-traditional galaxies. “We would ask for something very new about galaxy formation or a modification in cosmology. One of the most extreme possibilities is that the universe was expanding faster soon after the Big Bang than we expect, which would require new forces and particles.”
Professor Boylan-Kolchin’s paper, “Strain test of ΛCDM with high redshift candidate galaxies,” was published in natural astronomy this week.
It is suggested that the information from the JWST suggests a profound dilemma for scientists. The data suggests that something may be wrong with the dark energy and cold dark matter model, or ΛCDM, that has been guiding cosmology for decades.
Normally, galaxies convert about 10 percent of their gas into stars. But the newly discovered galaxies will have to convert almost all of them into stars.
This is theoretically possible. But it is a departure from what scientists had ever expected.
Further observations of the galaxies should better clarify their ages and masses. It might show that the observations are incorrect: that the supermassive black holes at their centers are heating galaxies so they appear larger than they are, or that they are in fact from later than expected but appear older due to imaging problems.
But if they are confirmed, astronomers may have to change their understanding of the universe and how galaxies grow, to adjust their model to account for extraordinarily large and mature galaxies.
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