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Space
Space
Science
Keith Cooper

Youthful galaxy in the early universe was a heavy metal rebel

Telescope photo showing hundreds of galaxies in deep space.

The most distant carbon ever seen has been discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in a galaxy that we see as it existed just 350 million years after the Big Bang.

The detection is notable because not only is it the oldest carbon known, it is the first time that an element heavier than hydrogen or helium — what astronomers call "metals" — has been confirmed in the very early universe.

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