The James Webb Space Telescope made an unexpected discovery
The entire region was observed for the first time using a space telescope. Hubble in 2018and has properties that suggest it may be a site of reionization, but its components are difficult to discern. Each star cluster is about parsec (about 3.26 light years), indicating that they very tightwhich is approximately three orders of magnitude larger than typical young star clusters in the local Universe.
During the reionization of the Universe
The authors conclude that these results mean that star cluster formation and feedback may have shaped the properties of galaxies during the era reionization The universe underwent a major change that began about 379,000 years after the Big Bang.
“Reionization is one of the last major phase transitions of the Universe,” Adamo explains. “We think it started around the redshift at which we detected these star clusters, so they are found in the galaxy in the early stages of reionization.”
The discovery of young, massive star clusters in the Cosmic Jewel Arc provides exciting insights into how globular clusters form.
“We think that the radiation produced by these star clusters could travel outside the galaxy and promote reionization. But, of course, these are assumptions. We cannot have direct evidence with the current data,” admits the researcher.
In our Milky Way we see ancient globular star clustersheld together by gravity and preserved for billions of years. They are old relics of intense star formation in the early cosmos, but it is not known where or when they formed. The discovery of young, massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gem Arc now provides a beautiful glimpse into this process.
“These results provide direct evidence that protoglobular clusters formed in faint galaxies during the reionization era, furthering our understanding of how these galaxies managed to reionize the Universe– says Angela.
These results prove that protoglobular clusters formed in faint galaxies during the reionization era of the Universe.
Angela Adamo (Stockholm University)
Moreover, “the high density of stars found in clusters gives us the first indication of the processes occurring within them,” he emphasizes, “providing new data on possible formation of very massive stars and from black hole seedsboth are important for the evolution of galaxies.”
Spanish participation
Another of the authors, Yolanda JimenezA researcher from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) and the National Observatory of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) sums up the findings: “These structures are the oldest star clusters ever discovered and may be the precursors of the globular clusters we currently observe in our galaxy.”
“This discovery once again demonstrates how, thanks to James Webb, we are uncovering the earliest stages of the development of our Universe,” says co-author Jose Maria Diegoscientist at the Institute of Physics of Cantabria (IFCA, a joint center of CSIC and the University of Cantabria), where a model of the gravitational lens effect was developed to understand arc magnification.
“One of the questions that remains to be resolved is why we only see five double images,” he comments, “when in fact we expect six. A possible explanation is the presence dwarf galaxy unnoticed James Webb, at a lower magnification that does not allow us to see the said image.”
One question that remains to be answered is why we see only five double images when we actually expect six.
Jose Maria Diego (IFCA, CSIC-UC)
In any case, these results help shed light on how stars and galaxies in the early universeand the researchers hope to have many more examples in the future.
At the moment, “we are monitoring spectroscopic observations “Comic Gems arc, which will help to obtain more accurate physical properties of their star clusters and the host galaxy,” Adamo continues. Additional studies involving Webb are planned for 2025, which may yield further surprises.