Scientists unveil biggest map of the universe ever created, spanning almost all of time

The James Webb Space Telescope has pointed its extremely powerful instruments at a patch of sky that measures about three times as much space as the moon takes up when viewed from Earth. Webb spent 255 hours looking at this region, and the results are a stunningly detailed map of the universe.

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This specific region of space is called the COSMOS field and doesn't contain many stars, gas clouds, or other celestial objects that can impede the view of observers. The COSMOS field is a proverbial window into the deep universe, hence researchers wanting Webb, the world's most powerful space telescope, to peer into that region to gather valuable data.

What Webb found was 800,000 galaxies spanning nearly all of cosmic time, meaning the galaxies observed, or the light produced from these galaxies, date back to around the beginning of the universe, 13.5 billion years ago. NASA estimates the universe is about 13.8 billion years old.

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The results are not only stunning visually but also challenge current cosmological models that scientists have formed to understand the evolution of the universe. For example, Webb's discovery of galaxies that date back 13.5 billion years means the universe produced these celestial objects within approximately 400 million years, some of which measure at a billion solar masses of stars.

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Current cosmological models suggest the universe wouldn't have been very populated at all during its infancy. However, these measurements suggest otherwise, meaning Webb's observations have resulted in more unanswered questions than answered.

"Since the telescope turned on we've been wondering 'Are these JWST datasets breaking the cosmological model? Because the universe was producing too much light too early; it had only about 400 million years to form something like a billion solar masses of stars. We just do not know how to make that happen. So, lots of details to unpack, and lots of unanswered questions," said UC Santa Barbara physics professor Caitlin Casey, who co-leads the COSMOS collaboration

"It makes sense - the Big Bang happens and things take time to gravitationally collapse and form, and for stars to turn on. There's a timescale associated with that," Casey explained. "And the big surprise is that with JWST, we see roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances. We're also seeing supermassive black holes that are not even visible with Hubble."

If you are interested in checking out the map for yourself, an interactive map can be found here.