JWST Maps Cosmic Web With 164,000 Galaxies, Reaching Back to Universe's First 1 Billion Years
Updated
Updated · ScienceDaily · May 12
JWST Maps Cosmic Web With 164,000 Galaxies, Reaching Back to Universe's First 1 Billion Years
9 articles · Updated · ScienceDaily · May 12
Astronomers used JWST’s COSMOS-Web survey to build the clearest map yet of the universe’s cosmic web, placing more than 164,000 galaxies into a 3D structure stretching back to when the cosmos was about 1 billion years old.
COSMOS-Web—the largest JWST survey so far—covers a sky area about equal to three full Moons, and Webb’s infrared sensitivity plus sharper distance measurements let researchers separate filaments, sheets and voids that earlier data blurred together.
Researchers said the new map traces galaxy evolution across roughly 13.7 billion years of cosmic history and resolves structures from an era largely beyond the reach of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The team has publicly released the mapping pipeline, the 164,000-galaxy catalog, cosmic-density data and a visualization of the web’s evolution, extending COSMOS’s open-science approach.
Does this cosmic map reveal the hidden history of our own Milky Way's formation?
What secrets do the universe's vast, empty cosmic voids now hold for astronomers?
When did dense cosmic regions switch from being star nurseries to galactic graveyards?