Recent discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal that oxygen was abundant in the early universe, suggesting that the essential element for life existed much earlier than previously thought. It suggests that.
new discoveries from james webb space telescope It turns out that the early universe had a surprisingly abundant amount of oxygen. Researchers found that oxygen levels in galaxies rose rapidly within 500 million to 700 million years after the birth of the universe, reaching levels comparable to those in modern galaxies. This suggests that the essential elements of life existed much earlier than previously believed.
At the beginning of the universe, immediately after the universe, big bang, only light elements such as hydrogen, helium, and lithium were present. Then, heavy elements such as oxygen were formed by nuclear fusion reactions within stars and dispersed into galaxies, primarily by events such as supernova explosions. This process of nucleosynthesis has unfolded over the vast history of the universe, producing the various elements that make up the world and living things around us.
![Infrared images of six galaxies by JWST](https://scitechdaily.com/images/JWST-Infrared-Images-of-6-Galaxies-777x526.jpg)
JWST infrared images of six galaxies 500 to 700 million years after the birth of the universe. All six galaxies have lower oxygen abundances than modern galaxies. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Nakajima et al.
Recent findings using JWST
A research team led by Kimihiko Nakajima of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to measure oxygen in 138 galaxies that existed during the first 2 billion years of the universe. The research team found that most galaxies have an abundance of oxygen, similar to modern galaxies. However, he predicted that six of the seven early galaxies in the sample existed when the universe was only 500 million to 700 million years old. It was about half the oxygen content.
This rapid increase in oxygen content occurred sooner than astronomers expected. This opens up the possibility that life may have emerged earlier than previously thought, as necessary ingredients such as oxygen were already readily available in the early universe.
Reference: “JWST Census for the Mass-Metallicity Star Formation Relations at z = 4–10 with Self-consistent Flux Calibration and Proper Metallicity Calibrators” by Kimihiko Nakajima, Masami Ouchi, Yuki Isobe, Yuichi Zhang, Yechi Zhang, Ono Yoshiaki, Hiroya Umeda and Masamune Oguri, November 13, 2023, of astrophysical journal supplement series.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/acd556
This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.