ALMA and JWST study finds neutral gas in early galaxies
Technology
A recent study found that neutral gas played a key role in early galaxies, about 700 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.
Using data from ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers spotted a special signal that points straight to this neutral gas, the main fuel for making stars back then.
Chiba team detects [O I] signal
Led by Yoshinobu Fudamoto and Masamune Oguri from Chiba University, the team looked at four ancient galaxies and detected an [O I] signal in all of them. This confirmed there was plenty of dense, neutral gas helping stars form.
The research also shows how combining ALMA and JWST data gives us a clearer picture of how our universe's earliest galaxies came together.