A NASA Telescope Has Found More Exploding Stars, And Some Of These Stellar Explosions Occurred When The Universe Was Two Billion Years Old

mode_list - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only
mode_list - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only

A NASA telescope has found more exploding stars. The James Webb Space Telescope uncovered around 80 ancient supernovae in the sky.

According to astronomers, they discovered 10 times more supernovae than were previously believed to have existed during the early days of the universe.

Some of these stellar explosions occurred when the universe was about two billion years old, marking some of the oldest ones ever to be found.

Today, the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. A supernova is when a star makes a huge explosion, sending out vast amounts of energy as its core collapses in on itself.

It leaves behind a black hole, a neutron star, or a white dwarf, depending on how large the original star was.

Astronomers participating in the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) detected the new supernovae in a tiny patch of sky.

The patch was so small that it was equivalent to the thickness of a grain of rice when it’s held at arm’s length.

They were able to detect the ancient star explosions with the help of a phenomenon called cosmological redshift.

Cosmological redshift is when the light from faraway galaxies is more red than it should be. The redder appearance happens because the universe is expanding, which causes spaces between galaxies to stretch.

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When light stretches, it shifts toward the red end of the spectrum. Compared to blue light, red light has a longer wavelength, so when astronomers observe galaxies from a distance, they see the redshift.

“This is really our first sample of what the high red-shift universe looks like for transient science,” said Justin Pierel, a NASA Einstein Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

“We are trying to identify whether distant supernovae are fundamentally different from or very much like what we see in the nearby universe.”

Before the JSWT program was executed, scientists only knew of a few supernovae discovered through redshift that existed when the universe was younger than around 3.3 billion years old.

One of the supernovae from the latest discovery exploded when the universe was just 1.8 billion years old. It is the earliest-occurring supernova ever.

The new findings were presented during a press conference at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin.

They may be able to help astronomers determine if there are any differences between supernovae in the early universe and in today’s universe and how they have possibly affected the development of early planets and stars.

“We’re essentially opening a new window on the transient universe,” Matthew Siebert, the head of the spectroscopic analysis of the JADES supernovae, said in a statement.

“Historically, whenever we’ve done that, we’ve found extremely exciting things—things that we didn’t expect.”

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Emily  Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a ... More about Emily Chan

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