The Gasping Prediction from the James Webb Space Telescope turns out to be very realistic

It cost more than ten billion euros, the James Webb Space Telescope. After about 40 million man-hours of preparation time, it departed for the cosmos on Christmas Day 2021. “Webb will soon provide us with radically new insights into the universe,” astronomer Ewen van Dishoek told me at the time, previewing the launch. You should know: Van Dishoek has been closely involved in the scientific development of the new telescope since 1998.

Scientists who are too close to a fire sometimes tend to overestimate their brooders. They exaggerate and brag about their plan before even collecting a single data point.

Take the highly acclaimed Human Brain Project, which received €1 billion (and ten years) to recreate a brain in a computer. It didn’t work, though the search wasn’t entirely fruitless, as colleague Ronald Wildhuizen summarized in Reconstructing This Paper last month. After all, anyone who invests money in professional research always gets some new knowledge in return.

However, Webb shows that what appears to be invasive exaggeration is sometimes a realistic assessment of capabilities. This really began with the first telescope images of very distant galaxies. What did you turn? These galaxies are much shorter than expected after the birth of the universe. And then it might be heavier, too.

single now in the journal nature The published analysis of six of these systems has received particular attention. “If this is true, then we really have to go back to the drawing board,” astronomer Mariska Kreek (University of Leiden) ruled last year. Mike added that it is “fundamentally impossible” for galaxies to be so massive within the current standard cosmological model. Boylan-Kolchin (University of Texas) also increased last week in a weekly magazine new world.

Even if the standard cosmological model still escapes the chopping block, Webb continues to deliver results at an astounding rate. For example, it was published at the beginning of this month an amazing picture From 45,000 galaxies, including seven hundred from the early years of the universe. NASA exulted in the press release: “The sheer number … exceeds expectations made prior to Webb’s launch.”

Meanwhile, the space telescope is also discovering new planets, examining water plumes near Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and mapping the atmospheres of distant worlds, a line of research that may eventually lead humanity to the first raw evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Webb has written columns for this newspaper more than twenty times since its launch, most recently this week. And then, all things considered, it’s only a little bit busy. “It works really, really, really well,” astronomer Jonathan Gardner said earlier this year.

Those “new radical ideas” of Van Dishoek? I would say tick it off.