Scientists have discovered the presence of oxygen and other heavy metals in a distant galaxy in space. The galaxy, called JADES-GS-z14-0, is located 13.4 billion light-years from Earth and was discovered last year by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
“We were really surprised by the clear detection of oxygen in JADES-GS-z14-0,” astronomer Gregor Popping of the European Southern Observatory said in a statement. The discovery suggests that galaxies may have formed much more quickly after the Big Bang than previously thought.
The results were made by two different teams of astronomers conducting two separate studies. This has allowed scientists to improve their ability to measure galaxy distances.
