Incredible outfit for no doubt an incredible PhD thesis! Congrats Dr Helton 🥳🍾

Press releases:
ESA (@esa.int): esawebb.org/news/weic2505/

NASA: webbtelescope.org/contents/new...

DAWN (@cosmicdawncenter.bsky.social): cosmicdawn.dk/news/james-w...

Cambridge (@cambridgeuni.bsky.social): www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

I've been lucky to work on this amazing data together with Peter Jakobsen (also at @cosmicdawncenter.bsky.social), Roberto Maiolino, @renskerens.bsky.social, @aasaxena.bsky.social, and many others.

Special thanks goes to @kevinhainline.bsky.social, Brant Robertson, Ben Johnson, @sandrotacchella.bsky.social, and others, who orchestrated the initial search leading to the discovery of this galaxy.

Needless to say this was a huge team effort by the JADES collaboration, and would not have been possible without key contributions from a large number of international scientists.

JADES website (with interactive image viewer): jades-survey.github.io

This also implies the galaxy contains a remarkably powerful source of extreme ultraviolet radiation, either in the form of extraordinarily massive, hot stars or a supermassive black hole rapidly consuming nearby gas.

As illustrated beautifully in the News & Views article by Michele Trenti:

In JADES-GS-z13-1, JWST has confirmed one of the most distant galaxies known to date. But unlike any other similarly distant galaxy, it shows a very clear, telltale signature that can only be seen once the surrounding fog has fully lifted.

While the Universe right after the Big Bang was blisteringly hot, a rapid expansion and cooldown subsequently rendered it opaque to energetic ultraviolet light. This ‘fogginess’ was gradually cleared out when bright starlight from the first galaxies started a process known as cosmic reionisation.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy at an unexpectedly early time in cosmic history. But why is this result so surprising?

Image credits: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, STScI, J. Olmsted (STScI), S. Carniani (Scuola Normale Superiore), P. Jakobsen