NASA's Webb Telescope Reveals How Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe
A new study using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed how galaxies transformed the early universe. The study, published in the journal Nature, found that galaxies played a key role in reionizing the universe, a process that turned the once-opaque universe transparent. The study was led by Daichi Kashino of Nagoya University in Japan. Kashino and his colleagues used JWST to study a region of space that is about 13 billion light-years away. This region of space is filled with galaxies that were formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The researchers found that the galaxies in this region of space are surrounded by large bubbles of transparent gas. These bubbles are caused by the galaxies' ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the hydrogen gas in the surrounding space. Ionized hydrogen gas is transparent to light, so the bubbles of ionized gas allow light to pass through them, making the universe appear transparent. The re...