Using the James Webb Space Telescope
Astronomers have spotted six
massive galaxies and they date back to
within 500
and 700 million years after the Big Bang.
That's not all.
They think this discovery
could actually unravel
what they long
believed
to be true about the origin of galaxies.
So joining us now
to discuss astrophysicist
Neil deGrasse Tyson.
He is the director
of the Hayden Planetarium
at the Rose Center for Earth and Space.
So good to have you, sir.
Good morning to you.
Yeah, thanks for having me. Good morning.
So the James Webb
Space Telescope
has reportedly
spotted galaxies dating
even further back.
So what makes this discovery
so surprising?
Is it surprising to you?
Well, there's
this period of the early universe
that we call the Dark Ages
where the matter
and energy were there
but hadn't yet formed stars.
And so they had to sort of coalesce,
undergo thermonuclear fusion
in their core,
turn on, gather into galaxies
and then sort of the
that the universe begins
with stars and galaxies
as we come to know and love it.
And in that gap,
we don't really expect anything
to be there.
And these new objects
appear to be in that gap.
And so this would completely force
to force it to completely rethink
what's going on back then.
By the way,
the James Webb
telescope was designed precisely for this
purpose to help us understand
the origin of galaxies.
So we shouldn't be surprised
that we're surprised. want to put that out
All right.
You should rethink
what's going on back there.
So what are you.
What's the rethinking?
What are you thinking now?
Having gotten
this new information?
I don't know.
Well, you're the astrophysicist
and you don't know.
That's why we have you here,
Neil deGrasse Tyson.
The whole point of doing research on
the frontier
is you're stepping into places
where no one has stepped before.
The whole concept of the James
Webb Space Telescope
was to see the universe
the way no one,
no previous telescope had ever seen it.
So some things you'll verify
that you expect to be there,
but you also expect to make discoveries
that nobody ordered.
And then, yeah,
we got to go in and say, what's going on?
And yeah,
there's nothing wrong with not knowing.
This is part of how we live.
All right.
Well, let me tell you
this is one of the coauthors
of this study said
and this is in a statement
and I quote here, it says,
It turns out we found something
so unexpected.
It actually creates problems
for a science
it calls the whole picture
of early galaxy formation into question.
So again,
so go go on this to be clear.
Okay.
So so let me reword that.
Okay.
I respect how that stated,
but let me reword it.
You discover something new.
It doesn't create a problem
so much as it
creates excitement,
a new understanding of the universe.
We delight in this.
It's not like
we're all sitting back with our legs
up on the table
saying,
good basking
in the knowledge of the universe
that we have command over.
No, we are always at the drawing board.
And to people, say, scientists,
we have to go back to the drawing board.
We're always there.
If you're an active research scientist,
that's where you live.
And you you are befuddled daily.
Plus, of course,
the universe brims with mysteries
So, like I said.
But oh, by the way, we need better data.
There's a whole other wave of data
you can obtain on this,
and that's spectra
where you take the light
and analyze what comprises it.
And from that, you can learn
to how fast it's moving,
where it is, and the expansion
model of the universe,
what chemistry is going on in it.
That's another layer of discoveries
which might tell us,
no, we're misidentifying it
in this stage of discovery.
So a lot can happen.
So just watch this space
literally and figuratively.
And a lot is happening right now,
especially with my sleep deprived mine.
I'm like, Wait a minute,
this is a lot in the morning,
so I need another sip of coffee.
Okay, well, listen,
let me ask you this.
Everything that you're saying, sure.
To be clear,
we're not abandoning, are we?
Existing models
about how galaxies form and evolve
yet Right.
Well, we might.
We might have to.
Yeah, but that's okay.
That's okay. Bad day.
That's a great day for science.
If and when that happens.
But so.
So you don't want to jump to conclusions
before you get even better data
often on the frontier
of conflicts and problems.
Resolved once you get better data.
And like I said, Spectra
is how we actually decode the universe.
These are pretty pictures.
They're fine.
But behind closed doors,
we are analyzing spectra.
And spectra
is like the fingerprint of that object
where you can identify the chemistry
that's going on.
As I said, the motion, is it rotating?
What's comprising the light?
How fast is it
moving in the expansion of the universe?
All of that is going to come next.
And at that point,
we'll get a strong handle on what it is
we're looking at
and we'll decide
whether we have to keep
scratching our heads
where it see
if it fits into what was
previously understood. Okay.
So listen,
Meanwhile,
let me just say
what I just have to give a shout out to.
You know, we're celebrating the science
that comes out of
James Webb,
but engineers built this thing,
all right.
And we parked it
a million miles from earth,
facing outward, away from the sun.
There's
nobody ever interviewed the engineers.
And I just want to have
to give them a shout out
and for what they accomplished
to enable and empower
the science that we dreamed up
that we would be discovering
and shout out to.
It's a complete collaboration
to engineers. I'm with you on that.
Hey, quickly, though,
I want to get to this
because we've been talking about this
large metal mystery sphere
washing up on a beach in Japan.
According to BBC, it was like an egg.
Actually, it's not a threat.
But also I have no idea what it is.
Some theories
floating around the Internet
include Godzilla's egg.
Okay, listen, I'm
just saying
these are theories
because sometimes
people don't understand that
and they think that just posing Steinmetz
theory.
Yeah, it looks like I.
That theory, you have a hypothesis.
Just make me make a distinction.
What is this thing?
I have no idea.
Why does you
have to know everything at all times?
Why do we have you
know, about a lot of stuff, Mr.
Astrophysicist?
Big. Because.
Because that's what discovery is.
Discovery is what you're doing.
When you don't know what you're doing,
you're on the edge.
And so, yeah, I.
It could be a hoax.
Somebody put it in the ocean
and had it wash up a Godzilla's egg.
I love it. Yeah.
You know, don't don't poke it.
So I guess you're ready.
So I be delighted
when we learn what it is.
It's probably
something prosaic, unfortunately.
Okay. All right.
It's people's imaginations just run wild,
and that's fun.
That makes great fiction.
And side site fiction stories.
But usually it's something
less interesting than you remember.
I got to run.
I got to run again.
I'm not proposing that.
I'm just saying what people are proposing
so don't get it
twisted as has happened to me. I love.
I want it to be Godzilla. That's so fun.
Thank you. Will be great. Okay.