The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered a galaxy that existed just 600 million years after the Big Bang and weighs nearly as much as our Milky Way Galaxy. This galaxy, located in the galaxy cluster MACS J1423, designated as WEIC2429, has been nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle Galaxy due to its appearance, which resembles a “sparkle.”
Lamiya Mowla, co-lead author of the study and an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, identified the galaxy in an image captured by JWST.
‘Someone struck a match against the night…’ said NASA in a post on X. The image left the viewers stunned. “Our understanding of cosmos grows, and so does the wonder,” commented a user.
Someone struck a match against the night…
Webb discerned distinct star clusters in the Firefly Sparkle galaxy, which existed 600 million years after the big bang – the first discovery of an actively forming galaxy as lightweight as the young Milky Way. https://t.co/cJenCOWLsc pic.twitter.com/BWCarEPMPQ
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) December 11, 2024
The galaxy contains 10 distinct star clusters that emit most of its light. These clusters are visible in the image in a spectrum of pink, purple, and blue hues, indicating that star formation didn’t happen all at once in this galaxy but was staggered in time.
The JWST utilized its advanced technology and a natural phenomenon known as gravitational lensing to capture detailed images of the galaxy.
In the image, the galaxy appears stretched into a long arc, which made it easier for researchers to identify the star clusters. The researchers then modelled what the galaxy would look like if it were not affected by gravitational lensing.
The model suggests that the galaxy has an elongated raindrop shape, indicating that it is still in the formation process. This shape implies that the stars within the galaxy have not yet settled into a central bulge or a thin, flattened disc.
However, the researchers cannot predict the final shape of this galaxy because it is influenced by two companion galaxies. The Firefly Sparkle galaxy, classified as a low-mass galaxy, is located 6,500 light-years away from its first companion and 42,000 light-years away from its second companion. These distances may impact how the galaxy accumulates mass over time. The research was published in a journal in Nature.