The JWST has done it again. The powerful space telescope has already revealed the presence of bright galaxies only several hundred million years after the Big Bang. Now, it’s sensed light from a galaxy only 280 million years after the Big Bang, the most distant galaxy ever detected.
Prior to the JWST, we had no infrared telescopes with large enough mirrors to detect light from the early galaxies. The Hubble can see near-infrared light, but only has a 2.4-meter mirror. It found only one galaxy from the Universe’s 500 million years. The Spitzer Space Telescope was a dedicated infrared telescope, but it only had an 85 cm mirror. Not only does the JWST have a much larger mirror, but detector technology has advanced so much that the veil obscuring the early Universe is being lifted one ancient galaxy at a time.
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