A new view from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a crowded landscape of stars and galaxies, each shedding light on the story of the universe. The COSMOS-Web group, led by Dr. Ghassem Gozaliasl from the University of Helsinki, has focused on the largest concentration of galaxies seen in the central region.
The image showcases structures that were previously unseen, thanks to Webb’s infrared detectors. Observing so many diverse galaxies in a single region helps researchers trace how these mighty star cities evolve over cosmic time. Over half of all galaxies exist in groups, making these clusters valuable for understanding galactic evolution.
When galaxies interact, gravity can pull them into surprising shapes or even merge them altogether. Researchers studying these systems piece together patterns that help explain how matter is distributed across huge stretches of space. They have seen this process, called ram pressure stripping, in many nearby clusters, where galaxies get pulled apart by gravity or collide with neighbors.
The X-ray data gathered by older telescopes captures scorching clouds of gas in these galaxy groups. Webb pushes even deeper by detecting the faint infrared glow from ancient objects that might otherwise slip by unnoticed. The project aims to pinpoint galaxies born during the epoch of reionization, a critical era when early stars reionized hydrogen in the young universe.
Unraveling the relationship between a galaxy’s star mass and its broader galactic halo can illuminate how galaxies stay stable and where new stars might spring up. The sheer variety of galactic forms stands out in Webb’s new image, with some swirling elegantly with spiral arms and others appearing to interact or overlap in intricate ways.
Future research will refine distance measurements, star formation histories, and the distribution of dark matter across these new galactic groupings. The collaboration between instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton enriches our understanding of the galactic web that stretches beyond our home in the Milky Way.
Source: https://www.earth.com/news/thousands-of-galaxies-revealed-in-a-single-webb-image