Once again a JWST result has been misunderstood and twisted into something it's not on social media. In this video we're chatting about what astronomers have found, how they found these galaxies, and what that means for our understanding of the Universe. ** REFERENCES ** Labbé et al. (2023; 6 massive galaxies in JWST data) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.12446.pdf Rana (1987; the initial mass function of stars) - https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1987A%26A...184..104R Licquia & Newman (2015; stellar mass of the Milky Way) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.1078.pdf More info on the JWST CEERS survey: https://ceers.github.io/ The JWST proposal information for CEERS: https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/phase2-public/1345.pdf JWST observing schedules: https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/observing-schedules JWST data archive (with public access!): https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html Twitter bot for JWST current observations: https://twitter.com/JWSTObservation My previous video on the history of the Big Bang theory - • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RCQYqwODFM&t=0s 00:00 - Introduction 00:22 - What have astronomers found in JWST data? 02:04 - Lyman break in a galaxy spectrum: DISTANCE 03:19 - Balmer break in a galaxy spectrum: AGE & MASS 04:59 - How we know heavy these galaxies are 06:18 - How you measure it with just galaxy images (not spectra) 08:02 - How heavy are these galaxies then? 09:11 - Why it's a big deal they're so big 10:28 - Does this mean the Big Bang theory is wrong? No. 11:23 - The caveats: are the measurements accurate or precise? 12:54 - What's next? Getting spectra with JWST 13:26 - Bloopers --- ? My new book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://hyperurl.co/DrBecky --- ? "The Year In Space" celebrating all things space in 2022 from me and the rest of the Supermassive Podcast team: https://geni.us/jNcrw --- ? My new merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://dr-becky.teemill.com/ --- ? Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive --- ? Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video! --- ??‍? I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars. http://drbecky.uk.com https://rebeccasmethurst.co.uk