Ridge Runner Chronicles – May 24, 2023
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Is the James Webb Space Telescope Just Teasing Us?
By Bill Hoagland
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been in orbit for over a year now and what a precocious youngster it has turned out to be. Yes, I know the JWST is a soulless, inanimate object but every week it keeps coming up with another provocative discovery that makes the smartest heads in the world—those belonging to the astrophysicists– spin even faster. It is almost as if the JWST is alive and enjoying the intellectual chaos it is causing.
So just to recap some of the more provocative discoveries just in the past year, the JWST has recorded two galaxies colliding, peeked inside a black hole, discovered that the closest exoplanet to us (Proxima b) may have carbon dioxide and other chemicals that might support life as we know it and has shown us that there really is no such thing as an “empty sky;” if humans had the infrared vision that the JWST has, we would realize that the universe is covered from top to bottom with galaxies, all crammed together like a very busy wallpaper pattern. And did I mention that each galaxy has millions or even billions of stars and planets? Wow.
But the most recent discovery and the one that has caused astrophysicists around the world to “panic”—their word, not mine– is evidence provided by the JWST that there are at least four massive galaxies that are even older than GNz-11, the galaxy previously believed to be the oldest and farthest galaxy in our universe, with evidence that there may be a hundred more of that age and size beyond those galaxies. This discovery directly challenges the Big Bang Theory as to how our universe was created because these galaxies are too big and too old to have formed so soon after the Big Bang using the generally accepted rules that astrophysicists have relied on for years. Now, because of this discovery, some experts now believe that there could be one or more universes beyond “our” universe that were created before the Big Bang. Is your head spinning yet? Mine is.
I certainly hope there aren’t any astrophysicists getting ready to jump off a bridge because the Big Bang Theory, after all these years, may be inaccurate. The fact is that there is dark matter, dark holes, dark energy and so many other factors we can’t even comprehend yet that could impact what we are observing in that tiny spectrum of light that we are receiving and attempting to analyze. The JWST is projected to be around for another 20 years, and regardless whether the JSWT is somehow “playing with our minds,” let’s give it time and enjoy the ride.
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■ Bill Hoagland has practiced law in Alton for more than 50 years, but he has spent more than 70 years hunting, fishing and generally being in the great outdoors. His wife, Annie, shares his love of the outdoor life. Much of their spare time is spent on their farm in Calhoun County. Bill can be reached at billhoagland70@gmail.com.
