James Webb breaks its own record as it detects the oldest galaxies that have ever existed

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has broken its own record. It found five galaxies, which may be among the oldest that have ever existed, at once.

According to scientists, the discovered galaxies date back 200 million years after the Big Bang. They are located at a distance of 13.6 billion light-years, LiveScience writes.

If further observations confirm the age of the found galaxies, astronomers will be able to test their best theories of light formation along with a unique insight into how matter first came together in space.

"These first galaxies have remained outside of our observational reach for decades," the researchers said. However, the James Webb telescope has changed that.

Unlike its predecessor, Hubble, JWST can detect light in the infrared spectrum, giving the telescope access to the early stages of the Universe. However, the light from extremely early epochs is too dim, so it's hard to pick up, scientists say.

To get around this, researchers leading new observations made as part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project have used a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing to magnify the distant light of these early galaxies.

As Einstein pointed out in his theory of general relativity, gravity is the curvature and distortion of space-time in the presence of matter and energy. This curved space, in turn, determines how energy and matter move.

This means that even if light travels in a straight line, it can be bent and magnified by gravity, experts explain. In this case, the Abell S1063 galaxy is located between the region the scientists chose to study and our solar system, focusing the early galaxy's light so that it can be observed with telescopes.

By pointing James Webb at this area of curved space and slowly collecting the light coming from behind it, astronomers have pushed the telescope to its limits, catching the first faint glimpses of early galaxies, experts say.

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