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Did James Webb Space Telescope "Break The Universe"? Apparently not.

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posted on May, 7 2023 @ 08:41 AM
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In February this year there was a lot of hype in the media about how the James Webb Space Telescope may bave broken the universe. There was even a thread here on ATS about it:

James Webb may have Broken the Universe

An astronomer on the Youtube channel Dr. Becky released a video a few days ago saying she thinks the Universal Stellar IMF (Initial Mass Function) used in the paper that suggested our model of the universe might be broken, was probably an incorrect or bad assumption. The early universe was in a "hot dense state" as you can hear in the theme song of the TV show Big Bang Theory, and at higher temperatures, stellar formation occurs differently. So how should we account for star formation at higher temperatures? This paper cited by Dr. Becky proposes a solution and apparently the James Webb observations of the "apparently massive" old galaxies fits our existing models, after accounting for the higher temperature that existed closer to the big bang.

Here is a link to the paper that apparently solves the "tension" with our model:
Implications of a Temperature Dependent IMF I: Photometric Template Fitting

A universal stellar initial mass function (IMF) should not be expected from theoretical models of star formation...
which was precisely the (apparently wrong or bad) assumption used in the paper suggesting the universe might be "broken", a universal IMF. This paper discusses why that's a bad assumption, but Dr. Becky said it was still quite common for astronomers to make that assumption.

Here is Dr. Becky explaining why she thinks this probably solves the discrepancy though she reserves some healthy skepticism that there could be more to learn, a good assumption to make with a new telescope in service making new discoveries.

JWST's "too massive" galaxy problem solved?! | A non-universal IMF



 
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