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One of the first spectacular pictures he took NASAThe new multi-million pound James Webb Space Telescope has captured the earliest galaxies in the universe.
Now, an early analysis has focused on one of those galaxies, nine billion light-years from Earth, revealing that it glitters with some of the oldest known star clusters, dating back to shortly after the Big Bang.
These dense clusters of millions of stars may be relics containing the first and oldest stars in the universe.
Dubbed the “Sparkler Galaxy”, it is named after the compact objects that look like small yellow-red dots that surround it, which researchers call “sparkles”.
They speculated that the sparks could be young clusters of actively forming stars – born three billion years after the Big Bang at the peak of star formation – or old globular clusters.
Globular clusters are ancient collections of stars from the galaxy’s infancy and hold clues to its earliest stages of formation and growth.
From the first analysis of 12 of these compact objects, experts concluded that five of them are not only globular clusters, but are among the oldest known.

Spotlight: One of the first spectacular images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured the earliest galaxies in the universe. Now, early analysis has focused on one of these, the ‘Sparkler Galaxy’ (pictured), nine billion light-years from Earth.

Their research revealed that the galaxy sparkles from some of the oldest known star clusters

Experts from Canada’s NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey studied Webb’s deep-field image
The research was carried out by experts from the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), who studied the Deep Field image of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
“JWST was built to find the first stars and the first galaxies, and to help us understand the origins of complexity in the universe, such as the chemical elements and building blocks of life,” said Lamiya Mowla of the University of Toronto and co-lead author of the study.
‘This discovery in Webb’s first deep field already provides a detailed view of the earliest stages of star formation and confirms the incredible power of the JWST.’
The Milky Way Galaxy has about 150 globular clusters, and exactly how and when these dense clumps of stars formed is not well understood.
Astronomers know that globular clusters can be extremely old, but measuring their age is a formidable challenge.
Using very distant globular clusters to determine the age of the first stars in distant galaxies has not been done before and is only possible with Webb.
“These newly discovered clusters were formed almost before stars could even form,” Mowla said.
“Because the Sparkler Galaxy is much further away from our Milky Way, it is easier to determine the age of its globular clusters.
We are looking at the Spark as it was nine billion years ago, when the universe was only four and a half billion years old, we are looking at something that happened a long time ago.

The Milky Way Galaxy has about 150 globular clusters, and exactly how and when these dense clumps of stars formed is not well understood

From an initial analysis of 12 compact objects in the Sparkler galaxy, experts have determined that five of them are not just globular clusters, but are among the oldest known

Until now, Hubble astronomers have not been able to see the surrounding compact objects of the Sparkler Galaxy
‘Think of it like guessing a person’s age based on their appearance – it’s easy to tell the difference between a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old, but it’s hard to tell the difference between a 50-year-old and a 55-year-old.’
Kartheik G. Iyer of the University of Toronto and co-lead author of the study said: “Seeing the first images from JWST and discovering old globular clusters around distant galaxies was an amazing moment that was not possible with previous Hubble Space Telescope images.
“Because we were able to observe the sparklers at different wavelengths, we were able to model them and better understand their physical properties, such as how old they are and how many stars they contain.”
“We hope that the realization that globular clusters can be observed from such great distances with JWST will stimulate further science and the search for similar objects.”
Until now, Hubble astronomers have not been able to see the surrounding compact objects of the Sparkler Galaxy.
That changed with Webb’s increased resolution and sensitivity, which for the first time revealed the tiny specks surrounding the galaxy in the first Deep Field image.
The Sparkler Galaxy is special because it’s magnified by a factor of 100 due to an effect called gravitational lensing – where the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster in the foreground distorts what’s behind it, like a giant magnifying glass.
In addition, gravitational lensing creates three separate images of the Sparkler, allowing astronomers to study the galaxy in more detail.

Dubbed the “Sparkler Galaxy”, it is named after the compact objects that look like small yellow-red dots that surround it, which the CANUCS researchers (pictured) call “sparkles”.

Webb’s increased resolution and sensitivity revealed for the first time the tiny “sparkly” dots surrounding the galaxy in its first Deep Field image.
“Our study of Sparkler highlights the extraordinary power of combining JWST’s unique capabilities with the natural magnification provided by gravitational lensing,” said CANUCS team leader Chris Willott of the National Research Council’s Herzberg Research Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.
‘The team is excited for more discoveries to come when JWST turns its gaze to the CANUCS galaxy clusters next month.’
The researchers combined new data from JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) with archival HST data. NIRCam detects faint objects using longer and redder wavelengths to observe beyond what is visible to the human eye and even HST.
Both the magnification due to the galaxy cluster lens and the high resolution of JWST made it possible to observe compact objects.
Canada’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on JWST provided independent confirmation that the objects are old globular clusters because the researchers did not observe oxygen emission lines—emissions with measurable spectra emitted by young clusters that are actively forming stars .
NIRISS also helped reveal the geometry of the three-lens Sparkler images.
“JWST’s Canadian-built NIRISS instrument was instrumental in understanding how the three images of the Spark and its globular clusters are connected,” said Marcin Sawicki, a professor at Saint Mary’s University in Canada and co-author of the study.
“When I saw several Sparkler globular clusters imaged three times, it became clear that they were orbiting the Sparkler galaxy rather than simply being in front of it by chance.”
Future studies will also model the galaxy cluster to understand the lensing effect and perform more robust analyzes to explain the star formation history.
The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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