The deeper we look into space, the farther in time we see. The light emitted from some of the young galaxies in our universe must travel billions of years to reach us and is captured by our cosmic star-rich instruments. And this light can tell us not only where we came from, but also where we can go.

To understand the evolution of many of these early universe “young” galaxies, a team of astrophysicists led by Northwestern University analyzed data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which observes universes that are only two or three years old. Billions of years after the Big Bang.

Specifically, by analyzing results from the Chemical Evolution Constrained by Ionizing Lines in the Interstellar Aurora (CECILIA) study, the team found that these galaxies not only appear hotter than expected, but also contain heavy elements such as nickel.

The researchers focused on 33 distant galaxies over a sustained period of 30 hours. They then combined the wavelengths of light collected from 23 of these galaxies to create a complete picture of what is happening inside these structures; These spectra contain clues about things like average temperatures and what elements might be lurking inside.

“This eliminates the detail of individual galaxies, but gives us a better picture of the average galaxy. It also allows us to see fainter elements,” said Allison Strom, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University.

The composite image of the galaxies contained eight identified elements: hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, argon and nickel. Although lighter elements were expected, the presence of nickel, which is heavier than iron, in the periodic table was a bit of a surprise.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we would see a dime,” Strom said.

Even in nearby older galaxies, nickel is rarely seen; This happens after a few stellar lifetimes; This means multiple supernova cycles and the opportunity for heavier elements to fuse and spread throughout the galaxy.

“No one is talking about a nickel watch. Elements must shine in the gas for us to see them. Strom said there must be something unique about the stars of galaxies for us to see nickel.

Strom believes that the higher temperatures observed in these early galaxies may have something to do with their interesting chemical composition: “Ultimately, the fact that we see a higher characteristic temperature is just another manifestation of their different chemical DNA, because temperature and chemical composition are a large fraction of the gases in galaxies.” are inherently linked.”