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JWST spots the earliest sign yet of a distant galaxy reshaping its cosmic environs

The marker is an unexpected bubble that could signal cosmic reionization earlier than thought

Several blurry galaxies of various sizes and shapes on a black background in this image from the JWST. In the center, a small red dot marks the most distant galaxy in this field, JADES-GS-z13-1.

The extremely distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1 is the small red dot in the center of this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. New observations show the galaxy is emitting a surprising amount of ultraviolet light, indicating it is radically reshaping the cosmic landscape around it.

JWST/ESA, NASA, STScI, CSA, JADES Collaboration, Brant Robertson/UC Santa Cruz, Ben Johnson/CfA, Sandro Tacchella/U. of Cambridge, Phill Cargile/CfA, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, A. Pagan/STScI, M. Zamani/JWST/ESA)

By Lisa Grossman

The James Webb Space Telescope has caught a distant galaxy blowing an unexpected bubble in the gas around it, just 330 million years after the Big Bang.