Astronomers have found the oldest recognized “lifeless” galaxy in latest observations from the James Webb Area Telescope (JWST). This galaxy seems to problem present fashions of the early universe.The newly found galaxy, named JADES-GS-z7-01-QU, stopped forming stars greater than 13 billion years in the past, when the universe was solely 700 million years outdated. Nevertheless, astronomers are puzzled by the galaxy’s sudden halt in star formation as a result of, at the moment, the mud and fuel essential to kind stars was ample within the universe. “The primary few hundred million years of the universe was a really lively section, with a lot of fuel clouds collapsing to kind new stars,” Tobias Looser, lead writer of the research from the College of Cambridge, mentioned in a press release. “Galaxies want a wealthy provide of fuel to kind new stars, and the early universe was like an all-you-can-eat buffet.”Associated: The James Webb Area Telescope’s targets over the following yr embrace black holes, exomoons, darkish power — and moreData from the JWST Superior Deep Survey (JADES) exhibits that the galaxy most definitely had a fast burst of star formation that lasted between 30 million to 90 million years, after which stopped all of a sudden between 10 million and 20 million years earlier than the time limit noticed by the JWST, based on the assertion. Useless galaxies — people who now not kind stars — have been noticed within the early universe earlier than, However JADES-GS-z7-01-QU is the oldest such galaxy but recorded at solely 700 million years after the Massive Bang that shaped the universe 13.8 billion years in the past. It is usually a lot smaller than different dormant galaxies beforehand noticed within the early universe — a advantage of the JWST’s improved sensitivity that may detect smaller and fainter galaxies.”Till now, to grasp the early universe, we have used fashions based mostly on the fashionable universe,” Roberto Maiolino, co-author of the research from the College of Cambridge, mentioned within the assertion. “However now that we are able to see a lot additional again in time, and observe that the star formation was quenched so quickly on this galaxy, fashions based mostly on the fashionable universe might have to be revisited.”The latest observations of JADES-GS-z7-01-QU are the deepest views into the distant universe made so far by the JWST. The fast burst of star formation noticed within the galaxy might have exhausted the galaxy’s reservoir of mud and fuel from which new stars are shaped. “Every thing appears to occur quicker and extra dramatically within the early universe, and that may embrace galaxies shifting from a star-forming section to dormant or quenched,” Looser mentioned within the assertion. Given astronomers are nonetheless not sure why precisely the galaxy’s star formation stopped — or if the galaxy ever got here again to life — they plan to discover a higher variety of outdated galaxies to assist piece collectively galactic evolution within the early universe and create extra correct fashions of that point interval.Their findings had been revealed March 6 within the journal Nature.Â