Spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at a redshift of 14.

The first observations of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revolutionized our understanding of the Universe by identifying galaxies at redshift z ≈ 13 (refs. ). In addition, the discovery of many luminous galaxies at Cosmic Dawn (z > 10) has suggested that galaxies developed rapidly, in apparent tension with many standard models.

A recently quenched galaxy 700 million years after the Big Bang.

Local and low-redshift (z < 3) galaxies are known to broadly follow a bimodal distribution: actively star-forming galaxies with relatively stable star-formation rates and passive systems. These two populations are connected by galaxies in relatively slow transition. By contrast, theory predicts that star formation was stochastic at early cosmic times and in low-mass systems.

Methane throughout the atmosphere of the warm exoplanet WASP-80b.

The abundances of main carbon- and oxygen-bearing gases in the atmospheres of giant exoplanets provide insights into atmospheric chemistry and planet formation processes. Thermochemistry suggests that methane (CH) should be the dominant carbon-bearing species below about 1,000 K over a range of plausible atmospheric compositions; this is the case for the solar system planets and has been confirmed in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs and self-luminous, directly imaged exoplanets. However, CH has not yet been definitively detected with space-based spectroscopy in the atmosphere of a transiting exoplanet, but a few detections have been made with ground-based, high-resolution transit spectroscopy including a tentative detection for WASP-80b (ref.

Carbonaceous dust grains seen in the first billion years of cosmic time.

Large dust reservoirs (up to approximately 10M) have been detected in galaxies out to redshift z ≃ 8, when the age of the Universe was only about 600 Myr. Generating substantial amounts of dust within such a short timescale has proven challenging for theories of dust formation and has prompted the revision of the modelling of potential sites of dust production, such as the atmospheres of asymptotic giant branch stars in low-metallicity environments, supernova ejecta and the accelerated growth of grains in the interstellar medium. However, degeneracies between different evolutionary pathways remain when the total dust mass of galaxies is the only available observable.

λ = 2.4 - 5 m spectroscopy with the JWST NIRCam instrument.

The James Webb Space Telescope near-infrared camera (JWST NIRCam) has two 2'. 2 × 2'.2 fields of view that can be observed with either imaging or spectroscopic modes.