Using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have measured the abundance of oxygen in the early universe. The findings, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series and posted to the arXiv preprint server, show that the amount of oxygen in galaxies increased rapidly within 500–700 million years after the birth of the universe, and has remained as abundant as observed in modern galaxies since then. This early appearance of oxygen indicates that the elements necessary for life were present earlier than expected.

Using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have measured the abundance of oxygen in the early universe. The findings, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series and posted to the arXiv preprint server, show that the amount of oxygen in galaxies increased rapidly within 500–700 million years after the birth of the universe, and has remained as abundant as observed in modern galaxies since then. This early appearance of oxygen indicates that the elements necessary for life were present earlier than expected.

  • @LimeeyEnglish
    3•8 months ago

    The article doesn’t seem to say, but if we expected oxygen to form via nuclear synthesis in stars, but there’s more oxygen than we would expect, do we have any hypothesis for how? Could oxygen have formed another way or was it more likely that the nuclear synthesis happened more rapidly in the early universe?