Webb's Teenage Galaxie are astonishingly hot and luminous with unexpected elements showing strange chemistry

The initial findings from the CECILIA Survey, led by a team of astrophysicists from Northwestern University, have been thoroughly scrutinized.

 This program, employing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), focuses on unraveling the chemical composition of galaxies situated far from our own.

Titled "Surprising Components within 'Adolescent Galaxies'," the early data unveils peculiar characteristics of these "teenage galaxies" that emerged approximately two to three billion years post the Big Bang. 

These celestial bodies stand out for their extraordinary warmth and concealment of unexpected elements, such as the elusive nickel, notoriously challenging to discern.

These results, published on November 20 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, represent the first of several planned analyses derived from the CECILIA Survey.

Exploring The Evolution of Galaxies

"Our goal is to discover how galaxies have changed over the course of 14 billion cosmic years," said Allison Strom, the Northwestern University researcher resulting in this investigation.

 "Employing the James Webb Space Telescope, our mission centers on adolescent galaxies during their tumultuous phase of rapid expansion and transformation, similar to the unstable growth stages often witnessed in teenagers."

Unexpected Elements in Adolescent Galaxies

Utilizing the light emitted by 23 remote galaxies marked within red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope's image above, a merging of signals was achieved to detect exceedingly faint emissions from eight distinct elements. These elements are explicitly identified in the JWST spectrum positioned at the bottom. While these elements are frequently encountered on Earth, astronomers seldom, if at all, encounter many of them within galaxies situated far away. Acknowledgment: Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

A key figure within the CECILIA Survey, Strom serves as an assistant professor in physics and astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, she holds membership in Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). 

Collaborating closely with Gwen Rudie, a staff scientist at Carnegie Observatories, Strom co-leads the CECILIA Survey.

Unveiling Insights into Galaxy Formation through 'Chemical DNA'

The CECILIA Survey, named in honor of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a trailblazing astronomer, examines the spectra of distant galaxies, which represent the light intensity across various wavelengths.

Strom analogizes a galaxy's spectra to its "chemical DNA." Analyzing this genetic imprint during a galaxy's formative "teenage" stage provides researchers with invaluable insights into its growth and future evolutionary trajectory as it matures

The question of why some galaxies show signs of being "red and dead" while others, like our Milky Way, are still undergoing star formation is still a mystery to astronomers. Crucial elements like oxygen and sulfur can be found by analyzing a galaxy's spectrum, which provides information about the galaxy's possible future and past activities.

"Understanding these adolescent phases is important as it marks a period of significant growth," said Strom. "Through this exploration, we embark on deciphering the physics responsible for shaping the Milky Way's unique characteristics—and the factors contributing to its differences from neighboring galaxies."

In a recent study, Strom and others used the JWST to monitor 33 far-off young galaxies for thirty hours straight last summer. 

Adding to the astonishment, the adolescent galaxies exhibited an extraordinary level of heat. Physicists gauge a galaxy's temperature by analyzing its spectra. While the most scorching zones within galaxies can surpass 9,700 degrees Celsius (17,492 degrees Fahrenheit), the teenage galaxies register temperatures surpassing 13,350 degrees Celsius (24,062 degrees Fahrenheit).