Webb Discoveries

The James Webb Space Telescope confirmed JADES-GS-z14-0 as the most distant known galaxy, with a spectroscopic redshift of 14.32. We are seeing this galaxy as it existed when the Universe was less than 300 million years old, only 2% of its current age. The galaxy is surprisingly bright and massive for its early epoch, challenging models of how galaxies could grow so quickly after the Big Bang.

NIRSpec observations of the rocky exoplanet GJ 486 b showed signs of water vapor either in a planetary atmosphere or in starspots on the host star. If the water signal is from the planet, it would mark the first detection of an atmosphere around a rocky world outside our Solar System.

Webb's NIRCam image of the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula stripped away the dust that hides newborn stars from optical telescopes. The result is one of the most detailed views ever taken of an active stellar nursery, showing both the dense pillars and the protostars forming within them.

In August 2022 Webb announced the first definitive detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside our Solar System. The hot gas giant WASP-39b was observed using the NIRSpec instrument as it transited its host star, allowing astronomers to fingerprint molecules in the planet's atmosphere through transmission spectroscopy. The detection demonstrated Webb's ability to characterize exoplanet atmospheres in unprecedented detail.