James Webb finds complex organic matter in the early Universe 1.5 billion after the Big Bang

The James Webb Space Telescope has enabled scientists to find complex organics in the early Universe. The researchers compared the existence of complex compounds at this stage to a 'retired third-grader'.

Here's What We Know

It wasn't just the space telescope that helped make the discovery, but also a massive cluster of galaxies 3 billion light-years away from our planet. It created a gravitational lens that distorted space-time around itself and allowed background objects to be seen magnified.

More specifically, James Webb saw the solitary galaxy SPT0418-47. The space telescope detected 47 complex organic molecules in it. On Earth, they are often found in oil. The main feature of the discovery is that organic matter was formed only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, that is, when the universe has passed only 10% of its development.

Scientists do not intend to stop there. They will continue to use the James Webb Space Telescope to search for complex organics in other galaxies in the early Universe. The only problem is the degradation of the spectrometer. From 2025, such research will become impossible unless scientists figure out a way to increase the bandwidth.

Source: space