"JWST's superior size - and unique infrared capabilities - have broken many cosmic records already. It's discovered numerous early, more distant galaxies than ever before. Within many of those galaxies, surprises do indeed abound. They appear in great abundance: greater than initially predicted. Many display evidence of actively feeding supermassive black holes. Some even possess strong emission lines, indicating the presence of hot, ionized plasmas. However - and this is important - none of them show evidence for being truly "pristine.""
"Immediately following the Big Bang, only hydrogen and helium are present in any significant abundance. Heavier elements, like carbon, oxygen, and iron only arise once stars form, live, and die. Even the earliest, most pristine galaxies ever discovered contain evidence for this processed material. That's why it's no surprise that oxygen exists in ultra-distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0. The second most distant galaxy known at present, it was found to contain oxygen."
JWST's larger aperture and infrared sensitivity have revealed numerous early, distant galaxies, many more abundant than predicted. Several of those galaxies show signatures of actively accreting supermassive black holes and strong emission lines from hot, ionized plasmas. None of the observed galaxies are chemically pristine; even the earliest examples contain heavier elements produced by prior stellar generations. Oxygen has been detected in the ultra-distant galaxy JADES-GS-z14-0, the second most distant known, via direct spectroscopy. All currently found galaxies lie more than 250 million years after the Big Bang, so truly primordial, oxygen-free objects remain beyond current observational reach.
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