A new discover has been made by the NASA’s James Webb Orbital Observatory Project team which is said to be the first in billion years after the birth of the Universe.
The NASA, ESA, CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed a chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains.
As per James Webb Discovery release, this observation raises the idea of a distinct species of carbon-based molecule, possibly small granules like graphite or diamond that were created by the earliest stars or supernovae.
Moreover, this discovery also opens up the new possibilities for investigating the early Universe’s complexities and its mechanisms that may have created these enigmatic dust grains.
The findings open up exciting avenues of exploration into the production of cosmic dust and the earliest stellar populations in our Universe, it said.
Furthermore, it added that in more recent times, these grains have been linked to complex molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which take hundreds of millions of years to form. However, their presence within the first billion years of cosmic time challenges existing models.
The slight change in the absorption wavelength from the known carbon-based species is a distinguishing characteristic of this discovery.
As per the release by the James Webb Discovery, the team observed a peak at 226.3 nanometers, different from the typical 217.5-nanometer peak associated with PAHs and graphitic grains.
This discrepancy might point to the presence of a unique combination of dust grains, possibly graphite- or diamond-like grains. According to the researchers, it is speculated that supernova ejecta or Wolf-Rayet stars may have formed these grains.
While speaking to Space.com, the research lead author and University of Cambridge scientist Joris Witstok said, “The surprising finding here is that we can directly see and learn about the properties of these dust grains at such an early time, and we can tell they’re carbon-based.”
Earlier on 17 July, the Webb telescope had captured tantalizing evidence for mysterious ‘dark stars.’ The three objects spotted by Webb, which was launched in 2021 and began collecting data last year, were initially identified last December as some of the universe’s earliest-known galaxies but, according to researchers, instead might actually be humongous dark stars. Dark matter, invisible material whose presence is known mainly based on its gravitational effects at a galactic scale, would be a small but crucial ingredient in dark stars.
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Updated: 20 Jul 2023, 02:14 PM IST