Set of extremely distant galaxies (NIRSpec MSA emission spectra)

A team investigating data from Webb’s Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey has already identified seven galaxies that existed when the universe was only 540 to 660 million years old. Some of the evidence is displayed above: Three lines appear in the same order – one hydrogen line followed by two ionised oxygen lines in each spectrum. Where this pattern falls reveals the redshift of each galaxy, showing researchers how long ago their light was emitted. CEERS 24 and CEERS 23 emitted their light 13.3 billion years ago, and CEERS 3 emitted its light 13.2 billion years ago. 

Webb was not only the first to deliver images of these galaxies, but also the precise, highly detailed data known as spectra that reveal their compositions. Researchers have long expected to make these discoveries, but until Webb began its operations, they didn’t have sensitive enough space-based infrared instruments to capture extremely distant galaxies, which appear as miniature red dots in Webb’s images.

NIRSpec was built for the European Space Agency (ESA) by a consortium of European companies led by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre providing its detector and micro-shutter subsystems.

[Image description: The graphic shows the redshift of three distant galaxies. At top right is the complete NIRCam image of the field. To its left is a pull out, which shows the locations of three galaxies, which are highlighted by tiny open white boxes. Three galaxies from this image are highlighted by larger open boxes. In the closeups, these galaxies appear blurry and red. Next to these images are three line graphs corresponding to the three highlighted galaxies. They show the shift in the position of hydrogen and oxygen emission lines to longer wavelengths as the age of the light increases.]