Webb Telescope unveils a Milky Way-like galaxy from the early universe
text_fields
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has made a groundbreaking discovery with the identification of a galaxy, dubbed Firefly Sparkle, that offers remarkable insights into the universe’s early stages.
This galaxy, detected approximately 600 million years after the Big Bang, shares a similar mass with the Milky Way during its formative years.
The findings, published in Nature on December 11, showcase the potential for understanding galactic development in the universe's infancy.
The Firefly Sparkle galaxy stands out due to its ten active star clusters, each undergoing different phases of star formation rather than simultaneous activity. This sequential process provides new information on how stars developed in the early universe. The galaxy’s appearance in Webb’s images is elongated into a stretched arc, a result of gravitational lensing caused by a massive foreground galaxy cluster.
Chris Willott, a principal investigator from Canada’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, highlighted the significance of Webb’s high-resolution data, which enabled researchers to study the distinct evolutionary stages of these star clusters.
Gravitational lensing played a pivotal role in the discovery of Firefly Sparkle. By bending and magnifying light from the distant galaxy, this phenomenon allowed astronomers to resolve fine details that would otherwise remain hidden. Lamiya Mowla, an assistant professor at Wellesley College, noted that without gravitational lensing, observing such intricate details in a galaxy from this epoch would have been impossible.
The galaxy is flanked by two companions, situated 6,500 and 42,000 light-years away, which are expected to shape its future evolution.
According to Yoshihisa Asada, a doctoral researcher at Kyoto University, these neighboring galaxies could merge with Firefly Sparkle over billions of years, contributing to its growth in mass and structure.
This discovery is a result of Webb’s Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS) program, designed to explore the early universe with unprecedented detail. The findings underscore Webb's capacity to illuminate the hidden processes shaping galaxies in the cosmic dawn, offering unparalleled glimpses into the universe's formative years.
