Astronomers Discover Abundant Oxygen in the Most Ancient Galaxy Ever Observed!

This Thursday, March 20, 2025, two studies published in The Astrophysical Journal and in Astronomy & Astrophysics report a particularly surprising discovery. Indeed, these papers highlight that oxygen, in addition to heavy metals, was found in Jades-GS-Z14-0, the most distant and therefore the oldest known to date.

Thanks to equipment and infrastructure such as the James Webb space telescope or the ALMA (ATAMACA Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array) in Chile we are gradually moving towards the resolution of the mystery of the universe. Recently, in January 2024, the light of Jades-GS-Z14-0 reached us.

This extremely distant galaxy is located at 13.4 billion light years from the earth. It means two things:

• Its light took 13.4 billion years to reach us
• This galaxy, the oldest and most distant, knew the all beginnings of the universe given that it was born only 400 million years after the Big Bang.

At a time when we speak, there is a very good chance that this galaxy is dead since our tools allow us to observe it as it was 13.4 billion years ago.

Thanks to various observations, it was also possible to highlight the speed at which Jades-GS-Z14-0 was formed. What question our knowledge on the training of the first mega structures of the universe.

“” “It's like finding a teenager where you only expected to find babies. The results show that the galaxy has formed very quickly and that it arrives so quickly in maturity, which is added to an increasing number of evidence that the formation of galaxies is much faster than expected.“Explained Sander Schouws, principal author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal And doctoral student at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, in comments reported by CNN.

A first surprise that led to another even bigger!

In addition to having to do a much more mature galaxy than what they expected, astronomers noticed something more surprising.

Indeed, in view of the cosmological models on the formation of galaxies, Jades-GS-Z14-0 is a UFO in particular with regard to the concentration of certain elements in the said galaxy.

Thanks to the various observations which were therefore made possible thanks to the James Webb space telescope and the Alma, astronomers have noticed that the oldest galaxy known to date contains 10 times more heavy elements than what was expected.

“” “These elements are produced by massive stars and the large amount of oxygen suggests that several generations of massive stars were already born and dead”Explained to Cnn Doctor Stefano Carniani, principal author of the study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and assistant professor at the Pisa Normal School in Italy.

Because yes, what surprised the researchers is the extremely important concentration of oxygen in this galaxy as distant.

And now ?

Because yes, if the discovery of such a concentration of oxygen is surprising astronomers, science cannot stop at this simple observation. Indeed, researchers will now tackle if Jades-GS-Z14-0 is unique of a kind or if other galaxies have experienced similar training.

If this is the case, then it will be possible to determine a new model on the formation of primitive galaxies which would therefore be very different from those like ours. Otherwise, Jades-GS-Z14-0 would then be an exception among all the galaxies in the universe.

Source: ESO / CNN