The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has produced groundbreaking findings, revealing unexpectedly large galaxies from the early Universe that challenge existing models of cosmic structure formation, particularly the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. Early observations indicated that several discovered galaxies appeared significantly more massive than theories suggest they should be, leading to potential discrepancies in our understanding of star formation timelines. A new study from the Cosmic Dawn Center offers a fresh perspective by proposing that the masses of these early galaxies could actually be underestimated due to the nature of light measurement. Clara Giménez Arteaga, leading the research, found that traditional methods that consider galaxies as single entities might overlook significant contributions from fainter stars within clumpy regions of galaxies. By analyzing individual pixel data rather than aggregate light, results indicated that stellar masses could be up to ten times larger than previously thought. This finding underscores the need for improved methods to resolve the true stellar masses of galaxies, particularly at early cosmic epochs. The importance of this research lies in its implications for accurately characterizing distant galaxies and understanding galaxy evolution in the Universe’s infancy, and the study has been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
