A team of international astronomers has achieved a groundbreaking record-breaking discovery using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They have successfully imaged over 40 individual stars in a galaxy nearly 6.5 billion light-years away, a distance that would be considered impossible to observe with current telescopes.
The research team, led by postdoctoral researcher Fengwu Sun, used JWST’s high light-collecting power and gravitational lensing effect to magnify the light of distant stars. This allowed them to identify individual stars in the galaxy known as the Dragon Arc, located behind a massive cluster of galaxies called Abell 370.
The discovery is significant not only because it sets a new record for the number of individual stars detected in a distant galaxy but also because it provides insights into one of the universe’s greatest mysteries – dark matter. The team found that many of the observed stars are red supergiants, which offers a unique opportunity to study these stars and their properties.
“This discovery demonstrates that studying large numbers of individual stars in a distant galaxy is now possible,” Sun said. “We can use this capability to better understand dark matter and its effects on galaxy formation.”
The research team’s findings have important implications for the field of astronomy, particularly in understanding how galaxies form and evolve. The JWST observations provide a new tool for studying stellar populations in distant galaxies, which will aid in understanding the structure of gravitational lenses and potentially shed light on the nature of dark matter.
This achievement marks a significant milestone in the development of astronomy, demonstrating that future JWST observations can capture hundreds of magnified stars in distant galaxies. The research team’s work has opened new possibilities for studying stellar populations and galaxy evolution, and it is expected to inspire further research into the mysteries of the universe.
Source: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/treasure-trove-unseen-stars-seen-beyond-dragon-arc