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James Webb observes the oldest galaxies ever seen

The two new papers present analyses of redshift light observed by James Webb. Redshift light refers to light that has been traveling for such a long time that the expansion of the universe has stretched its wavelength into the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

From early on in its scientific operations, James Webb has used this method to break records by observing the most ancient galaxies ever observed.

For the new observations, the scientists measured the redshift of the light observed by Webb and found that it was at the extreme end of the spectrum, stretched all the way into the infrared end of the spectrum.

Webb's spectra analyses.

The analyses show that the galaxies present in the new observations existed when the universe was less than 350 million years old.

Webb used its near-infrared camera (NIRCam) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument to detect a total of four new ancient galaxies. These have been dubbed JADES-GS-z100, JADES-GS-z110, JADES-GS-z120, and JADES-GS-z130. JADES stands for "JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey."

After measuring the redshift of the ancient galaxies, the astronomers confirmed their findings using spectroscopy.

"It was crucial to prove that these galaxies do, indeed, inhabit the early universe. It's very possible for closer galaxies to masquerade as very distant galaxies," Emma Curtis-Lake, a co-author of one of the new studies and an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire in England explained in ESAs press statement.

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James Webb peers even further back in time to reveal most distant ... - Interesting Engineering