The mysteries hidden in the corners of the universe
are far more interesting than anyone could possibly fathom.
Astronomers discover new mysteries and solve them in ways that are as perplexing as they
are enjoyable with each passing day and month.
Sometimes astronomers discover things in locations where they had the least expectation of finding
them.
That's exactly what happened when a group of astronomers set out to find a simple sample
of faraway galaxies.
The Hubble Space Telescope found something hidden in the cosmos.
What is this recent discovery, and how will it benefit the JWST?
In today's video, we'll look at how the Hubble Space Telescope came into contact with something
fascinating that will shock you!
Since its inception in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has dazzled the world with views
of space and a better knowledge of how the cosmos works.
Despite its age and small size, the Hubble Space Telescope remains one of the greatest
telescopes in the world.
In comparison to the massive 8-10m telescopes erected on the ground, with even larger ones
planned in the future, the 2.4m Hubble mirror is rather standard for modern research telescopes,
with optics reaching their third decade of usage.
However, it routinely outperforms many of the most advanced ground-based telescopes
and is still regarded as the pinnacle of optical and ultraviolet astronomy, with demand for
its utilization in research far outstripping available observing time each year.
The telescope, named after astronomer Edwin Hubble, is one of NASA's Great Observatories.
The Space Telescope Science Institute chooses Hubble's targets and analyses the collected
data.
However, the space telescope is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center.
The Hubble Telescope has a 2.4-meter mirror and five primary instruments that observe
the electromagnetic spectrum in the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared ranges.
Hubble can acquire remarkable high-resolution photos with substantially lower background
light than ground-based observatories because its orbit sits outside the distortion of Earth's
atmosphere.
The remarkable space telescope has captured some of the most detailed visible light photos,
providing scientists with a deep look into space.
Numerous Hubble space telescope observations have resulted in game-changing advances in
astrophysics, one of which is the determination of the rate of expansion of the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope was funded and built in the 1970s by NASA, with assistance
from the European Space Agency.
The telescope was finally launched in 1990, after several technical delays, budget concerns,
and the 1986 Challenger catastrophe.
It is the only telescope intended to be maintained in space by astronauts.
Five space shuttle trips have been used to repair, improve, and replace various systems
on the telescope.
The Hubble Space Telescope celebrated its thirty-year anniversary in April 2020; however,
it is scheduled to continue operating until 2030 to 2040.
The Hubble Telescope has provided us with enormous knowledge and visuals over its three
decades in space, including high resolution spectra and images of black holes, Hubble
deep field, ultra-deep field, and extreme deep field images, the reappearance of a supernova,
the mass and size of the Milky Way, pro-planetary discs in the Orion nebula, the optical counterparts
of the mysterious gamma-ray bursts, and much more.
Experts estimate that this huge telescope is nearing the end of its operational life,
but it still has a few tricks up its sleeve, and with the help of the JWST, it has recently
revealed some exciting new facts about the universe around us.
Yoshinobu Fudamoto of Waseda University and Japan's National Astronomical Observatory
was studying data from young distant galaxies obtained with the Atacama large millimeter/sub-millimeter
array in 2021 when he noticed unexpected emissions emanating from allegedly vacant regions in
space.
The Global Research team eventually established that the emissions were from two previously
unknown galaxies that were substantially veiled by cosmic dust.
These previously invisible galaxies discovered by astronomers are located roughly 29 billion
light years away from our planet.
The discovery of these two new galaxies has prompted scientists to reevaluate their beliefs
about the evolution of the universe since the well-known big bang that created our universe.
The two newly discovered Galaxies have been designated Rebels-12-2 and Rebels-29-2.
A new paper published in Nature revealed the discovery, noting that we were previously
ignorant of the existence of these rebellious galaxies because they were hidden by a thick
coating of cosmic dust.
This rendered Rebels 12 2 and Rebels 29 2 invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope's
optical lens.
Scientists were able to detect these galaxies by utilizing the ALMA Radio Telescope in Chile's
Atacama Desert, which can collect radio waves emanating from the universe's coldest and
darkest depths.
“We were looking at a sample of very different galaxies, which we already knew existed and
then we noticed that two of them had a neighbor that we didn't expect to see there at all,"
Pascal Oesch, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement.
"As both of these neighboring galaxies are surrounded by dust, some of their light is
blocked, making them invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope.”
According to Oesch, they're attempting to piece together the huge jigsaw of the universe's
genesis and answer the most basic question: where did it all come from?
The invisible galaxies discovered in the early universe as some of the first building pieces
of the mature galaxies seen in the universe today So, is it safe to assume that's where
it all started?
The revelation shows that up to one in every five of the universe's earliest galaxies may
have been absent from our map.
Experts require a complete accounting before they can begin to grasp when and how galaxies
evolved in the universe.
Oesch also mentioned that the most complicated infrared observatory ever built by humans,
the James Webb Space Telescope, will soon make this proper accounting possible.
The next logical step, in his opinion, is to locate the galaxies that have been neglected
because they are hidden beneath cosmic dust, as there may be many more than astronomers
initially believed.
In fact, scientists believe that nearly 10% to 20% of the universe's galaxies are still
undiscovered.
The light from these previously unseen galaxies, Rebels-12-2 and Rebels-29-2, has travelled
a stunning 13 billion years to reach us, according to the researchers.
They are, nevertheless, anxious to learn everything they can about the countless galaxies that
remain hidden in the early cosmos.
When astronomers gaze into the depths of the night skies, they see what the universe looked
like a very long time ago.
Because the speed of light is finite, studying the most distant observable galaxies allows
us to go billions of years back in time to when the universe was much younger and just
starting to generate stars.
Analyzing the early universe is today regarded one of the remaining frontiers in astronomy
and is critical for building an accurate and consistent astrophysics model.
One of the primary goals of space scientists is to identify all of the galaxies that existed
during the first billion years of cosmic history and to calculate the rate at which these galaxies
grew.
Until now, our understanding of early galaxies has been limited to the Hubble Space Telescope
and other big ground-based observatories that study their ultraviolet radiation.
However, astronomers have just begun utilizing the ALMA telescope to investigate distant
galaxies at submillimeter wavelengths.
This could be beneficial in analyzing galaxies that are surrounded and covered by dust that
absorbs UV light.
As Alma discovered in submillimeter wavelengths, it is possible to detect these galaxies by
studying the dust emissions.
Astronomers are aiming to monitor the emission of 40 Target galaxies during cosmic dawn in
a currently continuing and huge program called REBELS, and using this data they decided that
the areas around some of these galaxies actually contain more than meets the eye.
The cosmic dust has nearly totally obscured the two galaxies they've discovered thus far.
In fact, one of them is the most distant dust-obscured Galaxy ever discovered.
Fudamoto noted that these galaxies were overlooked not because they are exceptionally rare, but
because they are completely hidden by dust.
However, it is unusual to come across such dusty galaxies in the early universe's confinement.
This demonstrates that the existing census of early Galaxy formation is most likely incomplete,
as deeper blind cervix would be required.
This study exposing the new galaxies is an important step in the scientific journey of
determining when the very first galaxies began to form in the early cosmos, and it will assist
us in determining where we stand today.
With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are integrating images from it
with the Hubble Space Telescope to better understand how interstellar dust obscures
the view of distant galaxies.
Researchers anticipate that JWST's unique capabilities, combined with assistance from
Alma, will result in significant improvements in this field in the near future.
Indeed, Pascal Oesch stressed that one of the key goals of the JWST and Alma surveys
will be to complete the census of early galaxies with the currently missing dust obscured galaxies
like the ones discovered this time.
He wasn't wrong, as the newly revealed image of two galaxies that appear to be quite close
to one other combine infrared data obtained by the James Webb Telescope with visible and
ultraviolet light imaging done by Hubble.
In this latest image, two galaxies known as VV191 appear to be interacting with each other,
although they aren't as near as they appear.
The light from the small elliptical galaxy on the left of the image shines through the
intricate spiral galaxy on the right, which is closer to Earth than the other spiral galaxy.
The green, yellow, and reddish hues in the image indicate the features observed by the
JWST, while the blue hues represent Hubble observations.
Rogier Arnold Windhorst, an astronomer at Arizona State University, shared his delight
over the discovery, adding that by integrating data from NASA's James Webb Telescope and
the Hubble Space Telescope, they got more than they bargained for.
Webb's new data enabled Nessa to follow the light generated by the bright white elliptical
galaxy through the winding spiral galaxy and discover the effects of interstellar dust
in the spiral galaxy.
Tracking the distribution of dust in galaxies will help astronomers understand how it influences
the brightness and color of background objects, and places with high concentrations of dust
and gas are believed to be sites where new stars and planets develop, making them vital
targets for astronomers.
The JWST's exceptional data, paired with Hubble's, has left astronomers speechless with only
one image of the Universe.
Consider all of the mysteries that these two great telescopes will unveil in the future.
Let us know what you think in the comments section.