back to article James Webb smells someone having barbecue in galaxy 12 billion light years away

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, an international group of astronomers have discovered smog and smoke molecules indicative of early star formation in a galaxy only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. In a universe around 13.7 billion years old, scientists are on the hunt for signals from early in its …

  1. Paul Herber Silver badge
    Pint

    Where there's a barbecue there must be some ...

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

      Sausages

    2. Phones Sheridan Silver badge

      If it was my dad, it would be corn on the cob. Without fail. I could never understand why anyone would waste precious BBQ real estate, to cook vegetables!

      1. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

        Because grilled vegetables are as good as grilled meat, and can stand on their own without the meat. I'd like to point out at this time that I'm no rabbit, and love a good slab of smoked meat as much as the next normal person. If you see grilling veggies as wasting valuable grilling space, the problem is your grill is too small.

        One of my favorite sides for a steak - cubed potatoes, carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms and onions with a bit of butter and brown sugar grilled over hickory in a cast iron skillet, next to the steaks. Precook the hard veggies in the microwave for a few minutes to soften them up. I'll do 6 minutes with a bit of water in a plastic bag. This gets them to about the same tenderness as the soft veggies, and this lets them all finish cooking at the same time. The brown sugar helps the onions caramelize better. A little oil in the skillet, and you cook until tender with a bit of crisp on the sides of the potatoes. The next time you grill after trying this, you might find yourself getting smaller cuts of meat so you can put more veggies on the plate.

  2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Alien

    The start of life?

    Volcanoes erupt and cause lightening, the lightening creates nitrates and fires create carbon combinations with oxygen so this is just a little suggestion of the creation of life in the universe, maybe just a few reproducing molecules that start to combine and eventually start to be organisms in a sea.

    Let's check this planet again in the future ... maybe we should move there when our sun dies and takes us with it.

    1. Youngone

      Re: The start of life?

      I wonder why the 2 downvotes?

      The comment seems like an interesting discussion point. Maybe El Reg has a couple of deists on board.

      1. Joe W Silver badge

        Re: The start of life?

        Nah, it's likely because there's no volcanoes - because no stars, no planets.

        What I wonder about is how much metal (in astronomy anything heavier than, I believe, Helium is a "metal") there already was so early on. But then I probably misremember what "early" means in this context (pop III stars --> pop II stars, the latter do contain the first metals, but not too much).

      2. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

        Re: The start of life?

        No downvote from me, but if this planet is 12 billion light years away, what we're seeing happened 12 billion years ago. That planet may have already developed life, developed intelligent life, said life explored the galaxy, then died out, and its sun may have gone nova or turned into a dwarf already. Earh is what, 6000 years old or 4.5 billion years old depending on who you ask, so assuming it's 4.5 billion years old we're about a third of the way through a 12 billion year timespan and you can see our current state of development. The Sun is expected to blow its top or go red giant/dwarf out in something like a billion years from now, so there we'll be.

        This is also why I think we need to stop spending so much space cash on telescopes and start working on space travel and FTL drive ships. We're not seeing anything in real time, we're seeing billions of years ago. This is no different than archaeology, because the star that planet orbits may not actually exist anymore.

    2. Paul Herber Silver badge

      Re: The start of life?

      12 billion light years ... start walking.

      1. NXM

        Re: The start of life?

        Could be wrong here, but universal expansion makes the universe bigger rather faster than walking pace. Maybe get a skateboard?

  3. Kev99 Silver badge

    Chay' jajvam?

  4. _Elvi_
    Pint

    .. Where I live...

    the neighbours are ALWAYS baking Q ...

  5. Wayne Sun

    you had me at barbecue!

  6. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Holmes

    Smell ya later!

    Is ths the smell-o-scope?

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