JWST Just Found a Galaxy That Is So Old and Extreme That It Is Like a Fossil from the Early Universe

In this episode, we will explore one of the most remarkable discoveries made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): a massive and compact quiescent galaxy, which is a type of galaxy that stopped forming stars and is a possible ancestor of giant elliptical galaxies. We will also learn how this galaxy is surrounded by a complete Einstein ring, which is a rare and spectacular phenomenon of gravitational lensing, where the light from a distant galaxy is bent and magnified by the gravity of a closer galaxy. This discovery is not only stunning to look at, but also has profound implications for our understanding of galaxy evolution and cosmology.

Paper link:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.07969

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:36 What is an Einstein ring, and how is it formed?
03:34 What is the COSMOS-Web survey and how does it use the JWST?
05:01 What are the characteristics of the massive and compact quiescent galaxy, and how did the JWST measure them?
08:07 Outro
09:05 Enjoy