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For the first time, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has successfully detected and measured a galaxy that existed just 600 million years after the Big Bang, offering a striking glimpse into the early Universe. This discovery is particularly significant as the galaxy's mass closely resembles what the Milky Way's mass might have been during the same stage of its formation.
This galaxy, which is named the "Firefly Sparkle," is unique from the other galaxies observed by JWST at this point because it is lighter. The galaxy shines with star clusters, and researchers carefully studied 10 of these clusters to learn about its development.
"I didn't think it would be possible to resolve a galaxy that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components, let alone find that its mass is similar to our own galaxy's when it was in the process of forming," said Lamiya Mowla, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. "There is so much going on inside this tiny galaxy, including so many different phases of star formation."
According to NASA, Webb was able to image the galaxy in crisp detail for two reasons. One is a benefit of the cosmos: A massive foreground galaxy cluster radically enhanced the distant galaxy's appearance through a natural effect known as gravitational lensing. And when combined with the telescope's specialisation in high-resolution infrared light, Webb delivered unprecedented new data about the galaxy's contents.
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