Category: Goddard Space Flight Center

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NASA’s Hubble Finds Water Vapor in Small Exoplanet’s Atmosphere

Source: NASA

5 min read

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observed the smallest exoplanet where water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere. At only approximately twice Earth’s diameter, the planet GJ 9827d could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy.

However, it remains too early to tell whether Hubble spectroscopically measured a small amount of water vapor in a puffy hydrogen-rich atmosphere, or if the planet’s atmosphere is mostly made of water, left behind after a primeval hydrogen/helium atmosphere evaporated under stellar radiation.

“Until now, we had not been able to directly detect the atmosphere of such a small planet. And we’re slowly getting in this regime now,” added Benneke. “At some point, as we study smaller planets, there must be a transition where there’s no more hydrogen on these small worlds, and they have atmospheres more like Venus (which is dominated by carbon dioxide).”

Because the planet is as hot as Venus, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, it definitely would be an inhospitable, steamy world if the atmosphere were predominantly water vapor.

At present the team is left with two possibilities. One scenario is that the planet is still clinging to a hydrogen-rich atmosphere laced with water, making it a mini-Neptune. Alternatively, it could be a warmer version of Jupiter’s moon Europa, which has twice as much water as Earth beneath its crust.” The planet GJ 9827d could be half water, half rock. And there would be a lot of water vapor on top of some smaller rocky body,” said Benneke.

If the planet has a residual water-rich atmosphere, then it must have formed farther away from its host star, where the temperature is cold and water is available in the form of ice, than its present location. In this scenario, the planet would have then migrated closer to the star and received more radiation. The hydrogen was heated and escaped, or is still in the process of escaping the planet’s weak gravity. The alternative theory is that the planet formed close to the hot star, with a trace of water in its atmosphere.

The Hubble program observed the planet during 11 transits – events in which the planet crossed in front of its star – that were spaced out over three years. During transits, starlight is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere and has the spectral fingerprint of water molecules. If there are clouds on the planet, they are low enough in the atmosphere so that they don’t completely hide Hubble’s view of the atmosphere, and Hubble is able to probe water vapor above the clouds.

“Observing water is a gateway to finding other things,” said Thomas Greene, astrophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “This Hubble discovery opens the door to future study of these types of planets by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. JWST can see much more with additional infrared observations, including carbon-bearing molecules like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. Once we get a total inventory of a planet’s elements, we can compare those to the star it orbits and understand how it was formed.”

GJ 9827d was discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope in 2017. It completes an orbit around a red dwarf star every 6.2 days. The star, GJ 9827, lies 97 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

Media Contacts:

Ray VillardSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

Science Contacts:

Pierre-Alexis RoyTrottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal

Björn BennekeTrottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal

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NASA Collaborating on European-led Gravitational Wave Observatory in Space

Source: NASA

4 min read

The first space-based observatory designed to detect gravitational waves has passed a major review and will proceed to the construction of flight hardware. On Jan. 25, ESA (European Space Agency), announced the formal adoption of LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, to its mission lineup, with launch slated for the mid-2030s. ESA leads the mission, with NASA serving as a collaborative partner.

“In 2015, the ground-based LIGO observatory cracked open the window into gravitational waves, disturbances that sweep across space-time, the fabric of our universe,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “LISA will give us a panoramic view, allowing us to observe a broad range of sources both within our galaxy and far, far beyond it. We’re proud to be part of this international effort to open new avenues to explore the secrets of the universe.”

NASA will provide several key components of LISA’s instrument suite along with science and engineering support. NASA contributions include lasers, telescopes, and devices to reduce disturbances from electromagnetic charges. LISA will use this equipment as it measures precise distance changes, caused by gravitational waves, over millions of miles in space. ESA will provide the spacecraft and oversee the international team during the development and operation of the mission.

Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity more than a century ago. They are produced by accelerating masses, such as a pair of orbiting black holes. Because these waves remove orbital energy, the distance between the objects gradually shrinks over millions of years, and they ultimately merge.

These ripples in the fabric of space went undetected until 2015, when LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, measured gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes. This discovery furthered a new field of science called “multimessenger astronomy” in which gravitational waves could be used in conjunction with the other cosmic “messengers” – light and particles – to observe the universe in new ways.

Along with other ground-based facilities, LIGO has since observed dozens more black hole mergers, as well as mergers of neutron stars and neutron star-black hole systems. So far, the black holes detected through gravitational waves have been relatively small, with masses of tens to perhaps a hundred times that of our Sun. But scientists think that mergers of much more massive black holes were common when the universe was young, and only a space-based observatory could be sensitive to gravitational waves from them.

LISA will consist of three spacecraft flying in a vast triangular formation that follows Earth in its orbit around the Sun. Each arm of the triangle stretches 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometers). The spacecraft will track internal test masses affected only by gravity. At the same time, they’ll continuously fire lasers to measure their separations to within a span smaller than the size of a helium atom. Gravitational waves from sources throughout the universe will produce oscillations in the lengths of the triangle’s arms, and LISA will capture these changes.

The underlying measurement technology was successfully demonstrated in space with ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission, which operated between 2015 and 2017 and also included NASA participation. The spacecraft demonstrated the exquisite control and precise laser measurements needed for LISA.

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Hubble Spies Side-by-Side Galaxies

Source: NASA

1 min read

A barred spiral galaxy and a lenticular galaxy come together to create this interacting pair known as Arp 140. The lenticular galaxy, NGC 274, is visible on the right side of this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, and the barred spiral, NGC 275, is at left. The twosome is located in the constellation Cetus. 

Lenticular galaxies and barred spiral galaxies have different structures. In barred spiral galaxies, a bar of stars runs through the central bulge of the galaxy (seen here as a bright-white, vertical haze in NGC 275). Typically, the arms of the galaxy start at the end of the bar. Lenticular galaxies, on the other hand, are classified somewhere between elliptical and spiral galaxies. They get their name from the edge-on appearance that resembles a disk. Lenticular galaxies have large central bulges and flattened disk-like spirals, but no spiral arms. They don’t have much gas and dust and are made up primarily of old stars.

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Hubble Glimpses a Bright Galaxy Group

Source: NASA

2 min read

LEDA 60847 is classified as an active galactic nuclei, or AGN. An AGN has a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s central region that is accreting material. The AGN emits radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and shines extremely brightly. By studying powerful AGNs that are relatively nearby, astronomers can better understand how supermassive black holes grow and affect galaxies.

Galaxy mergers are relatively common occurrences. Most larger galaxies are the result of smaller galaxies merging. The Milky Way itself contains traces of other galaxies, indicating it is the product of past mergers. Astronomers believe somewhere between 5% and 25% of all galaxies are currently merging. 

This image of LEDA 60847 combines ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared data from Hubble. The ability to see across all those wavelengths is one of the things that makes Hubble unique. Different types of light across the electromagnetic spectrum tell astronomers different things about our universe. Ultraviolet light traces the glow of stellar nurseries and is used to identify the hottest stars. Visible light shows us moderate-temperature stars and material, and also how the view would appear to our own eyes. Last but not least, near-infrared light can penetrate cold dust, allowing us to study warm gas and dust, and relatively cool stars.

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Hubble Observes an Askew Galaxy Coaxing Star Formation from its Partner 

Source: NASA

2 min read

Arp 300 consists of two interacting galaxies, UGC 05028 (the smaller face-on spiral galaxy) and UGC 05029 (the larger face-on spiral). Likely due to its gravitational dance with its larger partner, UGC 05028 has an asymmetric, irregular structure, which is not as visible from ground-based telescopes but is quite distinct in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The bright knot visible to the southeast of the center of UGC 05028 may be the remnant of another small galaxy that is in the process of merging with that galaxy. If this is the case, that remnant will eventually merge with the bar of stars visible in Hubble images of UGC 05028, forming a central bulge similar to that of Arp 300’s larger companion galaxy, UGC 05029.

UGC 05029 has a pronounced spiral structure and multiple hot, blue giant stars visible on the side facing UGC 05028. This enhanced star formation is likely due to the interaction between the two galaxies. Another edge-on spiral galaxy is visible in this image below UGC 05029 but is too faint to be resolved into star-forming regions, while the five objects strung out above it are probably a group of distant background galaxies.

Hubble looked at this galaxy pair to study the relationship between the overall physical characteristics of galaxies and their star formation.

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NASA Goddard Experts to Take Part in February STEM Conference 

Source: NASA

Alongside experts from academia and industry, leaders from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will be on hand at the Feb. 25–29 PowerSource Global Summit conference in Orlando. Dr. Christyl Johnson, Goddard’s deputy center director for technology and research investments, will deliver the conference’s keynote address on Feb. 26, sharing insights on space exploration developments as they relate to the 2024 summit’s theme: “Women in STEAM Powering the Metaverse.” “STEAM” adds “arts” to the “STEM” science, technology, engineering, and math acronym.   

“As NASA embarks toward a sustained human presence on the Moon and onward to Mars, it’s critical that we underpin our efforts with a diverse and inclusive community,” Johnson said. “I look forward to sharing NASA’s latest efforts at the conference and to bringing back ideas and perspectives that will help ensure our exploration reflects humanity’s values and aspirations.” 
Johnson has been a deputy center director at Goddard since 2010. In her current position, she manages the center’s research and development portfolio and formulates the center’s future science mission and technology goals.
In addition to Johnson’s keynote, NASA Chief Information Officer Jeff Seaton will attend and present on a panel, “Cybersecurity in a Hackable World,” at 7:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 27. 
Other Goddard speakers at the conference include Chief Digital Engineer Aaron Comis; research scientist Dr. Bethany Theiling; Dr. Evana Gizzi, an AI research lead at the center; and systems engineer Matthew Vaerewyck. The four will present an interactive panel, “From Vision to Reality,” that showcases Goddard’s digital engineering design capabilities. The panel will be 10:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 26. 
Dr. Omar Hatamleh, Goddard’s chief adviser for AI and innovation, will participate in a panel discussion, “Medical Technology’s Transformative Impact,” at 11:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27. 
The private sector-led PowerSource Global Summit developed out of a 2016 collaboration that Johnson spearheaded to boost female representation in STEM fields. 
“Continuing dialogue allows us to move the needle forward to ensure a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workforce where barriers in STEAM careers cease to exist, particularly for women,” Johnson said. “That’s why it’s important for Goddard to participate in summits like PowerSource that convene STEAM professionals to share best practices and learn from one another. We need to engage the next generation, the Artemis Generation, to build a diverse future workforce for exploration.” 
In the conference’s current form, it allows diverse experts across disciplines to exchange ideas about technology’s influences on society, according to its website. The February conference takes place at World Center Marriott in Orlando. 
Goddard is NASA’s premiere space flight complex. The center is home to the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system and the universe.

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Hubble Views a Galactic Supernova Site

Source: NASA

2 min read

This image features a relatively small galaxy known as UGC 5189A, which is located about 150 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study a supernova explosion in 2010 known as SN 2010jl. This particular supernova is notable because it was an exceptionally luminous supernova event. In fact, over a period of three years, SN 2010jl released at least 2.5 billion times more visible energy than our Sun emitted over the same timeframe across all wavelengths. 

Even after supernovae fade to non-observable levels, it is still interesting to study the environments where they occurred. Such studies can provide astronomers with valuable information: supernovae can take place for a variety of reasons and understanding the environments in which they occur helps improve our understanding of the conditions that triggered them. Follow-up studies after supernovae also improve our understanding of the immediate aftermath of such events: from their potent effects on the gas and dust around them, to the stellar remnants they leave behind.

Hubble has observed UGC 5189A many times since 2010. This image is from data collected in three of the latest Hubble studies of UGC 5189A. These studies also examined several other relatively nearby galaxies that recently hosted supernovae – ‘relatively nearby’, in this context, means roughly 100 million light-years away.

Text credit: European Space Agency

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Michael Thorpe Studies Sediment from Source to Sink

Source: NASA

Sedimentary and planetary geologist Michael Thorpe finds the stories rocks have to tell, those on Earth and those from Mars.

Name: Michael Thorpe
Title: Sedimentary and Planetary Geologist
Organization: Planetary Environments Laboratory, Science Directorate (Code 699)

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
As a sedimentary and planetary geologist, my research focuses on how sediments are transformed from the mountains to the lakes downstream, which is a process called source to sink. I study this phenomenon around the globe on Earth and then compare the results to those from similar sites on Mars.
Why did you become a geologist?
I grew up on the Hudson River Valley and loved to be outdoors. I knew that I wanted to pursue a career that kept me outdoors hiking, looking at nature and the environment. My sister, my hiking companion, always told me that rocks have a story to tell, which inspired me.
What is your educational background?
I have a bachelor’s degree in geology from Towson University, and both a master’s and a doctorate in geosciences from Stony Brook University. I then did a NASA post-doctoral fellowship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. I was also later contracted at Johnson as a Mars Sample Return scientist.
Why did you come to Goddard?
Goddard was a dream job for me because I have always admired the group of scientists here, and I really wanted to work with the team in the planetary environments laboratory. Over the years, I closely followed their work, and it is exciting to be in a role to start contributing. I came to Goddard in July 2022 and tried to hit the ground running.

Tell us about your field campaigns.
I target terrains on Earth that may have been similar to ancient environments on the surface of Mars. To add some complexity to the system, I explore environments around the globe to better understand the impact climate has on the weathering of rocks. This work has implications for planetary exploration but also helps in understanding the long-term carbon cycle on Earth and its role in climate change.
In the field, I scoop up sediments, rocks, and water samples all the way from the source terrains in the mountains to depositional sites downstream. I then bring them back to our labs here at Goddard to study their geochemistry and minerology, but also ship samples off to my amazing collaborators for additional analysis in their labs around the world.
I have been super lucky early in my career be a part of five field campaigns to Iceland and then one to Hawaii, Idaho, and most recently Lazarote, Spain.
I hope to keep exploring places around the globe because each field site adds a new piece to the puzzle. However, every place I go, the puzzle ends up getting more complex and it motivates me to develop more questions for the next adventure.
What preparations do you take to conduct remote field work?
I’ll use Iceland as example for this one. For this work, we commonly are trekking to remote locations. In order to get there, we took modified trucks which were able to go through water, ice, and snow and even climb some pretty steep terrains. Theses trucks are cool because the driver can inflate and deflate the very large tires in real-time.
In the field, we wear our warm gear including down jackets but also sometimes waders to keep us dry while surveying a river. One of my favorite pieces of clothing in the field is a buff, which sits around our necks but we can also pull it up over our faces to shield us from the elements, which can include 70-plus mph winds at times.
Some recent and exciting preparation we have for the field is bringing an inflatable boat, basically a floating pontoon, to sample lake sediment. We take the pontoon over the water and then drill for sediment samples off the platform.
How important is a good team during remote field work?
Establishing a good team is the foundation for successful field work.
As a team leader, it is important to recognize the strengths as well as the limitations of all personnel, including myself. I am aware of my specialties and the areas where each teammate may thrive. When you put the right person in the right position, it makes the team excel. This fosters mutual respect and builds a support system. We understand we need to get the job done and how important each role is for the entire team.
I tend go out in fairly large groups, sometimes as many as 25 people. We all respect the science and each other. Everyone brings a different piece to the team. When we are sampling, everyone has a mission and a role, sometimes creating sub-teams to a sample different area or components of the study site.

What is the most important advice your mentor Amy McAdam told you?
Amy is the geochemist who leads our lab. Amy’s most important advice for me has been “go for it.” I say that jokingly, but it truly is incredibly helpful as a scientist to have someone backing you like that. She puts me in a position to succeed and always gives me the thumbs up to follow my scientific curiosity. Amy leads by example, both in the lab and field, I am grateful for all her support and look forward to working with her for many years.
As a mentor yourself, what is the one thing you tell your students?
Stay curious and do what you love. That’s the motto I have been following in my career, passed down from an amazing lineage of mentors, and I encourage all my mentees to do the same. It’s important for my students to follow their passions as well as to come up with new ideas. At the end of the day, it is remarkable to see a student develop their own research avenue. I hope to continue paying it forward and I look forward to mentoring the next generation of scientists for years to come.
What do you do for fun?
I love to watch and play all sports. Additionally, hiking brings me to my happy place. Hitting the trails with friends or my pup is icing on the cake. Speaking of cake, I also thoroughly enjoy cooking. Cooking relaxes me, it brings the family together, and it’s also something my wife and I love to do together. One of our favorite traditions is pizza Fridays, where we make some homemade pies and everyone is welcome. As for toppings, my favorite might be fried eggplant or spicy Italian sausage.
If you were to have a dinner party, who would you invite, living or dead, in addition to your family?
Easy! I’ve actually thought about this a ton. I would of course first invite my favorite athletes: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, and Emmitt Smith. These guys were my role models growing up and their work ethic was truly inspiring.
Additionally, I would love to sit down and have a pizza pie with Neil Armstrong and Jack Schmitt. Neil was obviously the first man on the Moon and Jack was the first geologist on the Moon. Hearing some stories from these pioneers would no-doubt be a lifetime highlight.
What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
Motivated. Passionate. Curious. Supportive. Hard-working. Family-man.
By Elizabeth M. JarrellNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

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NASA’s Roman to Search for Signs of Dark Matter Clumps

Source: NASA

Some of the finest, smallest details in the universe – the gaps between elongated groups of stars – may soon help astronomers reveal dark matter in greater detail than ever before. After NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, by May 2027, researchers will use its images to explore what exists between looping tendrils of stars that are pulled from globular clusters. Specifically, they will focus on the tidal streams from globular clusters that orbit our neighboring Andromeda galaxy. Their aim is to pinpoint a greater number of examples of these tidal streams, examine gaps between the stars, and ideally determine concrete properties of dark matter.
Globular cluster streams are like ribbons fluttering in the cosmos, both leading and trailing the globular clusters where they originated along their orbits. Their lengths in our Milky Way galaxy vary wildly. Very short stellar streams are relatively young, while those that completely wrap around a galaxy may be almost as old as the universe. A stream that is fully wrapped around the Andromeda galaxy could be more than 300,000 light-years long but less than 3,000 light-years wide.
With Roman, astronomers will be able to search nearby galaxies for globular cluster stellar streams for the first time. Roman’s Wide Field Instrument has 18 detectors that will produce images 200 times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope’s near-infrared camera – at a slightly greater resolution.
“Roman will be able to take a huge snapshot of the Andromeda galaxy, which simply isn’t possible with any other telescope,” shared Christian Aganze, the lead author of a recent paper about this subject and a postdoc at Stanford University in California. “We also project that Roman will be able to detect stars individually.”
Imagine the results: Roman’s vast, exquisitely detailed images will allow researchers to easily identify many examples of globular cluster streams in Andromeda. To date, astronomers using existing telescopes in space and on the ground have been limited to studying a slightly smaller number of globular cluster streams within our Milky Way.

Is Dark Matter Between the Stars?
Dark matter, which many assume to be a particle, can’t yet be observed directly, because it doesn’t emit, reflect, refract, or absorb light. If we can’t see it, how do we know it’s there? “We see dark matter’s effect on galaxies,” Aganze clarified. “For example, when we model how galaxies rotate, we need extra mass to explain their rotation. Dark matter may provide that missing mass.”
All galaxies, including the Milky Way, are surrounded by a dark matter halo. As astronomers glean more about the nature of dark matter, they may find evidence that a galaxy’s halo may also contain a large number of smaller dark matter sub-halos, which are predicted by models. “These halos are probably roughly spherical, but their density, sizes, and even if they exist isn’t currently known,” explained Tjitske Starkenburg, a co-author and a research assistant professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Roman will redefine their search. “We expect dark matter to interact with globular cluster streams. If these sub-halos are present in other galaxies, we predict that we will see gaps in globular cluster streams that are likely caused by dark matter,” Starkenburg continued. “This will give us new information about dark matter, including which kinds of dark matter halos are present and what their masses are.”
Aganze and Starkenburg estimate that Roman will efficiently deliver the data they need within nearby galaxies – requiring only a total of one hour – and that these observations may be captured by the High Latitude Wide Area Survey.
Starkenburg will also help lay the groundwork for this investigation through her contributions to another project recently selected for funding by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Research and Support Participation Opportunities program. “­This team plans to model how globular clusters form into stellar streams by developing a much more detailed theoretical framework,” she explained. “We’ll go on to predict where globular clusters that form streams originated and whether these streams will be observable with Roman.”
Aganze is also excited about other projects currently or soon coming online. “The European Space Agency’s Euclid mission is already starting to explore the large-scale structure of the universe, which will help us learn more about the role of dark matter,” he said. “And the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will soon scan the night sky repeatedly with similar goals. The data from these missions will be incredibly useful in constraining our simulations while we prepare for Roman.”
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Claire BlomeSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
​​Media Contact:Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.301-286-1940
Christine PulliamSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

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Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles, Surfboards

Source: NASA

Researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like surfboards and pool noodles – and are rarely round, like volleyballs or frisbees. “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we studied appear to be flattened in two dimensions,” explained lead author Viraj Pandya, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York. “Galaxies that look like pool noodles or surfboards seem to be very common in the early universe, which is surprising, since they are uncommon nearby.”
The team focused on a vast field of near-infrared images delivered by Webb, known as the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, plucking out galaxies that are estimated to exist when the universe was 600 million to 6 billion years old.

While most distant galaxies look like surfboards and pool noodles, others are shaped like frisbees and volleyballs. The “volleyballs,” or sphere-shaped galaxies, appear the most compact type on the cosmic “ocean” and were also the least frequently identified. The frisbees were found to be as large as the surfboard- and pool noodle-shaped galaxies along the “horizon,” but become more common closer to “shore” in the nearby universe. (Compare them in this illustration.)
Which category would our Milky Way galaxy fall into if we were able to wind the clock back by billions of years? “Our best guess is that it might have appeared more like a surfboard,” said co-author Haowen Zhang, a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. This hypothesis is based partly on new evidence from Webb – theorists have “wound back the clock” to estimate the Milky Way’s mass billions of years ago, which correlates with shape at that time.

These distant galaxies are also far less massive than nearby spirals and ellipticals – they are precursors to more massive galaxies like our own. “In the early universe, galaxies had had far less time to grow,” said Kartheik Iyer, a co-author and NASA Hubble Fellow also at Columbia University. “Identifying additional categories for early galaxies is exciting – there’s a lot more to analyze now. We can now study how galaxies’ shapes relate to how they look and better project how they formed in much more detail.”
Webb’s sensitivity, high-resolution images, and specialization in infrared light allowed the team to make quick work of characterizing many CEERS galaxies, and model their 3D geometries. Pandya also says their work wouldn’t be possible without the extensive research astronomers have done using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
For decades, Hubble has wowed us with images of some of the earliest galaxies, beginning with its first “deep field” in 1995 and continuing with a seminal survey known as Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Deep sky surveys like these led to far greater statistics, leading astronomers to create robust 3D models of distant galaxies over all of cosmic time. Today, Webb is helping to enhance these efforts, adding a bounty of distant galaxies beyond Hubble’s reach and revealing the early universe in far greater detail than previously possible.
Webb’s images of the early universe have acted like an ocean swell – delivering new waves of evidence. “Hubble has long showed an excess of elongated galaxies,” explained co-author Marc Huertas-Company, a faculty research scientist at the Institute of Astrophysics on the Canary Islands. But researchers still wondered: Would additional detail show up better with sensitivity to infrared light? “Webb confirmed that Hubble didn’t miss any additional features in the galaxies they both observed. Plus, Webb showed us many more distant galaxies with similar shapes, all in great detail.”
There are still gaps in our knowledge – researchers not only need an even larger sample size from Webb to further refine the properties and precise locations of distant galaxies, they will also need to spend ample time tweaking and updating their models to better reflect the precise geometries of distant galaxies. “These are early results,” said co-author Elizabeth McGrath, an associate professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. “We need to delve more deeply into the data to figure out what’s going on, but we’re very excited about these early trends.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.govNASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.eduSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Galaxy Types
Galaxy Evolution
How Can Webb Study the Early Universe?
Infrared Astronomy
More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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