Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
AD | Head to clau.de/DrBecky to discover why Claude feels different and built for real work | Hidden in the incredible Hubble Deep Field image is something even more extraordinary than its beauty… It is all of the astrophysics research that it made possible, including one of the most fundamental graphs in all astrophysics research, known as the "Madau plot". To us astrophysicists it’s incredible, because it shows when the Universe formed all its stars, revealing the majority formed around 10 billion years ago. In this video, we will explore how we got from the Hubble Deep Field image to this amazing graph, and how (as always!) JWST is changing the story as we know it…
Papers mentioned:
Steinhardt (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/pdf/2208.07879
Bouwens (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2212.06683
Cantarella (et al.) - 2025 - arxiv.org/abs/2511.03787
Donnan (et al.) - 2022 - arxiv.org/abs/2207.12356
Donnan (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2212.10126
Finkelstein (et al.) - 2022 - arxiv.org/abs/2207.12474
Finkelstein (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2211.05792
Harikane (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2208.01612
Hopkins & Beacom - 2006 - arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601463
Hughes (et al.) - 1998 - roe.ac.uk/~jsd/top_ten_papers/Dunlop_4.pdf
Madau (et al.) - 1996 - academic.oup.com/mnras/article/283/4/1388/1071226
Madau, Pozzetti & Dickinson - 1998 - iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/305523
Madau & Dickinson - 2014 - https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March14/Madau/paper.pdf
00:00 - Introduction
04:36 - I - How you go from Hubble Deep Field Image to Madau plot
06:38 - II - What the Madau plato reveals and why its implications are so profound
11:13 - III - How JWST has already changed things
14:14 - Bloopers
Previous videos:
JWST's "too massive" galaxy problem solved?! - youtube.com/watch?v=W4KH1Jw6HBI&t=474s
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
---
📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
---
👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): 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. 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.
drbecky.uk.com
AD | Head to clau.de/DrBecky to discover why Claude feels different and built for real work | Hidden in the incredible Hubble Deep Field image is something even more extraordinary than its beauty… It is all of the astrophysics research that it made possible, including one of the most fundamental graphs in all astrophysics research, known as the "Madau plot". To us astrophysicists it’s incredible, because it shows when the Universe formed all its stars, revealing the majority formed around 10 billion years ago. In this video, we will explore how we got from the Hubble Deep Field image to this amazing graph, and how (as always!) JWST is changing the story as we know it…
Papers mentioned:
Steinhardt (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/pdf/2208.07879
Bouwens (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2212.06683
Cantarella (et al.) - 2025 - arxiv.org/abs/2511.03787
Donnan (et al.) - 2022 - arxiv.org/abs/2207.12356
Donnan (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2212.10126
Finkelstein (et al.) - 2022 - arxiv.org/abs/2207.12474
Finkelstein (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2211.05792
Harikane (et al.) - 2023 - arxiv.org/abs/2208.01612
Hopkins & Beacom - 2006 - arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0601463
Hughes (et al.) - 1998 - roe.ac.uk/~jsd/top_ten_papers/Dunlop_4.pdf
Madau (et al.) - 1996 - academic.oup.com/mnras/article/283/4/1388/1071226
Madau, Pozzetti & Dickinson - 1998 - iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/305523
Madau & Dickinson - 2014 - https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March14/Madau/paper.pdf
00:00 - Introduction
04:36 - I - How you go from Hubble Deep Field Image to Madau plot
06:38 - II - What the Madau plato reveals and why its implications are so profound
11:13 - III - How JWST has already changed things
14:14 - Bloopers
Previous videos:
JWST's "too massive" galaxy problem solved?! - youtube.com/watch?v=W4KH1Jw6HBI&t=474s
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
---
📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
---
👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): 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. 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.
drbecky.uk.com
