{"id":19700,"date":"2022-11-03T17:35:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=130312"},"modified":"2022-11-03T17:51:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:51:09","slug":"nasas-james-webb-telescope-spots-sparkling-galaxy-that-may-contain-the-oldest-stars-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/nasas-james-webb-telescope-spots-sparkling-galaxy-that-may-contain-the-oldest-stars-ever-seen\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s James Webb telescope spots \u2018sparkling\u2019 galaxy that may contain the oldest stars ever seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 03 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The earliest stars ever seen may have been spotted by NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, a study carried out by astronomers at the University of Toronto has found.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the university\u2019s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the University of Toronto spotted the distant cluster of stars after analysing data from the space telescope\u2019s first deep field image.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u2018The Sparkler Galaxy\u2019, thanks to the series of small yellow dots that surround it, the cosmic object lies around nine billion light-years away from Earth.<\/p>\n

The team believes that the sparkles that give the galaxy its name are old globular clusters \u2013 ancient collections of stars that formed during a galaxy\u2019s infancy that contain clues about the earliest phases of its formation and growth.<\/p>\n

Previously, using the Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> \u2013 the James Webb Telescope\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0predecessor, astronomers were not able to determine what the sparkles surrounding the galaxy were.<\/p>\n

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The researchers studied the Sparkler galaxy located in Webb\u2019s First Deep Field and used JWST to determine that five of the sparkling objects around it are globular clusters.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The increased resolution and sensitivity of the JWST has now allowed them to analyse them in detail, including determining their age, for the first time.<\/p>\n

The data analysed was captured by the JWST\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which is able to detect incredibly faint objects using wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the first images from JWST and discovering old globular clusters around distant galaxies was an incredible moment \u2013 one that wasn\u2019t possible with previous Hubble Space Telescope imaging,\u201d said study co-author Dr Kartheik G. Iyer<\/a>, of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we could observe the sparkles across a range of wavelengths, we could model them and better understand their physical properties \u2013 like how old they are and how many stars they contain. We hope the knowledge that globular clusters can be observed at from such great distances with JWST will spur further science and searches for similar objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about the James Webb Space Telescope:<\/strong><\/p>\n