JADES Transient Survey (NIRCam Image)

stsci_2024-122a June 10th, 2024

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Christa DeCoursey (U Arizona) Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

The JADES Deep Field uses observations taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the JADES (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) program. A team of astronomers studying JADES data identified about 80 objects (circled in green) that changed in brightness over time. Most of these objects, known as transients, are the result of exploding stars or supernovae.

Prior to this survey, only a handful of supernovae had been found above a redshift of 2, which corresponds to when the universe was only 3.3 billion years old — just 25% of its current age. The JADES sample contains many supernovae that exploded even further in the past, when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. It includes the farthest one ever spectroscopically confirmed, at a redshift of 3.6. Its progenitor star exploded when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-122

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright