Northeastern Researchers Unveil Biggest Ever Glimpse into Universe’s Deepest Parts
A team of researchers from Northeastern University has made a groundbreaking discovery in understanding the universe’s history, thanks to a massive effort to study the cosmos using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The COSMOS-Web project has revealed images of nearly 800,000 galaxies, providing the clearest and largest glimpse into how our Milky Way galaxy formed.
The latest release of publicly available data from the project, known as COSMOS2025, offers a unique window into the universe’s earliest days, dating back to when it was just a few hundred million years old. This is equivalent to taking toddler photos of the universe.
The advanced instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope enabled the team to capture a broader range of galactic history in this survey. The project uncovered galaxies that are essential for understanding how stars formed and evolved over time.
Two Northeastern researchers, Jacqueline McCleary and Eddie Berman, played key roles in developing the software tools used to mitigate a blurring effect on the telescope’s optics. Their work helped ensure the accuracy of the measurements and high-resolution images in COSMOS2025.
The impact of this discovery extends beyond astronomers, as the project provides a foundational dataset for countless other astronomical surveys. The high-quality measurements and images will be used to calibrate and train other attempts to model galaxy shapes and distances, making it accessible to anyone with an interest in exploring the universe’s history.
Source: https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/06/06/cosmos-web-deep-universe