Sitting on your back looking at the sky is like thinking about how small we are compared to the universe, and it never ceases to surprise us. But, those of us who are fans of what is up there never cease to be surprised. Now, thanks to the James Webb telescope, a group of astronomers has managed to identify 44 stars in a galaxy located 11 billion light years away!!! Yes, you read that right: 44 stars in a corner of the cosmos that seemed impossible to observe in such detail. How did they do it? The answer lies in the so-called gravitational lens. We are going to tell you everything in much more detail below.
The “Dragon’s Arch”, what exactly is it?
The discovery is centred on this “Dragon’s Arch,” a galaxy so far away that its light has been amplified and deformed by a closer galaxy cluster, called Abell 370. In other words, if we observe it from Earth, we can see how a very bright arch appears, distorted by other galaxies.
How does this phenomenon work?
Let’s imagine that instead of a telescope, we have a magnifying glass. When we look through it, everything seems bigger, right? Well, in space, Abell 370 acts exactly like that magnifying glass. The curved mass amplifies the light from the galaxy that is just behind it, allowing telescopes like the James Webb to observe it with a clarity never seen before.
What is the James Webb?
This is the name of the most advanced telescope we know of on Earth for observing the universe. It can capture infrared light (which passes through cosmic dust) and allows us to observe galaxies that are at completely extreme distances (11 million light years!!!).
Why is this discovery so important?
Because in the past (not long ago) galaxies were observed as blurry spots, but now with this discovery it has been possible to identify 44 new stars in a galaxy that existed when the universe was still very young. It is practically looking into the past, but it can help us understand how the first stars were formed and with them, the first galaxies.
What do we know about these stars?
Each star that has been identified in this galaxy has characteristics that make it unique, such as its brightness or temperature, for example. This has given astronomers information about what the conditions of the universe were like millions of years ago, almost as if we were reading the diary of someone who lived thousands of years ago. How did the first stars form after the Big Bang? How do galaxies grow? There are so many unknowns surrounding the universe that it is dizzying to think that we are smaller than a speck of salt in such a large ocean.
The Cosmic magnifying glass: Abell 370
This galaxy cluster is located 6 billion light years away, and has been the protagonist of this discovery. As we have said before, if it were not for its magnifying glass effect, scientists would not have been able to observe this other galaxy in detail and identify these new stars for the first time.
Does this change astronomy?
Any small step taken in astronomical terms is a big step, because it is very complicated to find out how the first stars were formed, and how universes are organized (a shame that no one was there to see how they were formed!), but now, with this discovery, we can continue to investigate other galaxies as well as the formation and evolution of these.
Our universe is practically like a big sea in which you never see the shore, it is like a puzzle, and each piece tells us a little bit of how it all began, and, best of all, is the amount of secrets that are yet to be discovered! We still have a lot to learn about the vastness of the galaxy, and something tells us that thanks to James Webb and Dragon’s Bow, we’ll soon know a little more.