An international team of researchers has released what is now the largest and most detailed map of the universe ever created, capturing nearly all of cosmic history in one expansive dataset. The COSMOS-Web project utilizes data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to provide a panoramic view of the universe that challenges long-standing ideas about how the earliest galaxies formed.
The researchers behind the effort are from UC Santa Barbara and the Rochester Institute of Technology, aiming to construct a deep field of space on a physical scale far exceeding previous efforts. The resulting image captures the universe as it appeared roughly 13.5 billion years ago, spanning approximately 98% of cosmic history.
Initially, astronomers predicted that galaxies within the first 500 million years after the Big Bang would be extremely rare. However, using JWST data, the team discovered roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances, as well as supermassive black holes not visible with Hubble.
The new dataset raises more questions than it answers, including whether the JWST datasets are breaking the cosmological model due to excessive light produced too early. The COSMOS-Web project marks a shift in how astronomy is done by releasing the largest map of the universe and making its data public, aiming to spark new discoveries worldwide.
The team’s collaboration also includes the democratization of science, making tools and data from the best telescopes accessible to a broader community. Even undergraduate students and independent researchers can now explore the early universe using accessible images and catalogs.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/largest-ever-map-of-the-universe-reveals-800000-galaxies