\n
To test these new ideas, researchers are exploring the infant universe through simulations. \u201cThere\u2019s actually been really remarkable progress since Webb launched, really in the last year or so, on numerical simulations,\u201d Somerville told attendees, adding that these new simulations \u201cperhaps are more appropriate and more informative for interpreting observations in the high-redshift universe.\u201d<\/p>\n
As these models improve, JWST is documenting more and more galaxies. By comparing what it sees in the early universe to simulations that attempt to explain why, researchers are inching closer to uncovering the true nature of cosmic dawn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can try to match the best analogue of the observed galaxy to the simulated,\u201d said Hakim Atek, an astrophysicist with the Paris Institute of Astrophysics at Sorbonne University. \u201cOnce you have this best match, you can look at the star-formation history, because in the simulations you have access to the whole history of the galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n
An intriguing clue has recently emerged from JWST\u2019s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), a supercooled device that can split apart the light of distant objects. MIRI has revealed that early galaxies do not have the same traits, as scientists assumed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main surprise is the diversity of the properties of galaxies we are seeing at early epochs,\u201d Atek said. \u201cYou\u2019re expecting that they would look the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
This diversity may be an indication of star formation that occurred in bursts, as galaxies cycled through periods of fusing stars that exploded and expelled gas clouds, halting the creation of stars, only for the gas to gather again and trigger a new wave of stellar birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them, it looks like they cleared all the interstellar medium that is present there, the gas and the dust. It\u2019s like you\u2019re looking only at naked stars,\u201d Atek said. \u201cAnother galaxy is the opposite. It has a lot of gas.\u201d<\/p>\n
A further clue comes from a group of galaxies with an overabundance of nitrogen. The presence of the element suggests that there may have been a lot of particularly massive stars in the early universe. In simulations, these massive stars generate an excess of nitrogen before exploding in supernovas and scattering the element across their host galaxies.<\/p>\n
Someday, researchers may uncover the full picture of galactic formation. Until then, they\u2019ll continue sifting through the traces in new observations and simulations.<\/p>\n
The Puzzle of Existence<\/h2>\n
Once the astral lights switched on, the universe transformed. Radiation from early galaxies and black holes ionized a sea of neutral hydrogen gas, carving out immense bubbles amid the cosmic haze. Researchers call this period reionization, as it was the second time the universe was ionized. It marks the end of the cosmic dark age, when the foggy abyss was devoid of stars.<\/p>\n
The first stars, thought to be hundreds or thousands of times more massive than the sun, furiously worked their way through their hydrogen and helium fuel and erupted in powerful supernovas, seeding the universe with new elements such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and iron\u2014the stuff of planets and of life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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