|
| The James Webb Space Telescope captured this image of a galaxy cluster (SMACS0723). The five zoomed in galaxies are so far away that we observe them as they were when the universe was between one and five billion years old. Today the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Credit: Image adapted from image release by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI |
Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope's first images of galaxy clusters,
researchers have, for the very first time, been able to examine very compact
structures of star clusters inside galaxies, so-called clumps. In a paper
published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
researchers from Stockholm University have studied the first phase of star
formation in distant galaxies.
"The galaxy clusters we examined are so massive that they bend light rays
passing through their center, as predicted by Einstein in 1915. And this in
turn produces a kind of magnifying glass effect: the images of background
galaxies are magnified," explains Adélaïde Claeyssens, Department of
Astronomy, Stockholm University, one of the lead authors of the study.
The magnifying glass effect, together with the resolution of the James Webb
Space Telescope, made it possible for the researchers to detect stellar
clumps, very compact galaxy structures. These observations allowed the
researchers to study the link between clump formation and evolution and
galaxy growth a few million years after the Big Bang in a way that has not
been possible before.
"The images from the James Webb Space Telescope show that we can now detect
very small structures inside very distant galaxies and that we can see these
clumps in many of these galaxies. The telescope is a game-changer for the
entire field of research and helps us understand how galaxies form and
evolve," says Angela Adamo, Oscar Klein Center, Stockholm University, one of
the lead authors of the study.
The oldest galaxy studied in the paper is so far away that we see what it
looked like 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only 680 million
years old.
The study, "Star formation at the smallest scales; A JWST study of the clump
populations in SMACS0723," is published in the journal Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society.
Reference:
Adélaïde Claeyssens et al, Star formation at the smallest scales; A JWST study
of the clump populations in SMACS0723, Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society (2023).
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac3791