NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has made a historic discovery by detecting 44 individual stars in a galaxy 6.5 billion light-years away from the Milky Way. The detection was possible due to gravitational lensing, a technique that uses the distortion of light caused by massive matter to reveal hidden objects.
Astronomers used the telescope’s high-resolution optics to capture an image of the galaxy, which revealed dozens of previously unknown stars. The “Dragon Arc” in this image is a visible arc created by gravitational lensing and bending of light beyond Abell 370. By analyzing the colors of each star inside the Dragon Arc, researchers found many are red supergiants.
The discovery contrasts with earlier findings that predominantly identified blue supergiants. This discovery demonstrates that studying large numbers of individual stars in distant galaxies is possible. Future Webb telescope observations are expected to capture more magnified stars in the same galaxy.
The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the sun about 1 million miles from Earth, gathering data to help astronomers study every phase of the universe’s history. The telescope’s historic discovery will allow researchers to investigate dark matter and better understand its nature.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/how-astronomers-discovered-44-new-stars-distant-galaxy/story?id=117381763