An infrared image taken as part of the JADES programme (the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey), showing a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South where the observation in the study was made.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B. Johnson (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian), S. Tacchell
Astronomy and astrophysics
Astrophysics
An international team involving four researchers from the Department of Physics has harnessed the exquisite sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to achieve the first precise characterisation of interstellar dust during the early stages of the Universe. The study, published this week in Nature, not only sheds light on the composition of early cosmic dust, but may also provide valuable insights into the formation of stars and planets.