Researchers from the Canadian NIRISS Cluster Survey (CANUCS) team have identified the most distant globular clusters discovered to date.. This data, collected with the famous James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), could point to the oldest stars in our universe.
“The JWST was built to find the first stars and galaxies and to help us understand the origins of complexity in the universe, such as chemical elements and the building blocks of life,” said LamiyaMowla, a fellow at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy. . Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and co-author of the study. “This discovery in the First Webb Deep Field already provides detailed insight into the earliest phase of star formation, confirming the incredible power of JWST.”
The researchers’ findings were published Sept. 29 in The astrophysical journal letters. Using JWST’s detailed state-of-the-art images, they were able to zoom in on what they call “the star galaxy9 billion light-years away. The name comes from the appearance of the galaxy in the images, with small compact objects surrounding it. They looked like little yellow-red dots. The team suspects that these dots could be young stars in active formation or old globular clusters, ancient clusters of stars from a galaxy’s childhood.
First hints of eternity
They initially examined 12 of these objects and determined that five of them were some of the oldest globular clusters known to date.
“Looking at the first JWST images and discovering ancient globular clusters around distant galaxies was an incredible moment, a moment not possible with previous images from the Hubble Space Telescope,” said Kartheik G. Iyer, fellow at the Dunlap Institute. for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and co-author of the study.
“Because we were able to observe the flashes over a wide range of wavelengths, we were able to model them and better understand their physical properties., such as their age and the number of stars they contain. We hope that the knowledge that globular clusters can be observed at such great distances with JWST will stimulate further science and searches for similar objects.”
The Milky Way, our galaxy, has about 150 globular clusters. Astronomers still don’t fully understand history, and measuring age can be extremely difficult.
“These newly identified clusters formed almost the first time it was possible to form stars.explained Mowla. “Because the Sparkler galaxy is much more distant than our Milky Way, it’s easier to determine the age of its globular clusters. We’re looking at Sparkler as it was nine billion years ago, when the universe was only 4.5 billion years old.” was looking at something that happened a long time ago.”
Think of it like guessing a person’s age based on their appearance: It’s easy to tell the difference between a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old, but it’s hard to tell the difference between a 50-year-old and a 55-year-old.”
What’s next for CANUCS?
According to CANUCS, future studies will also model the Sparkler galaxy cluster and attempt to establish even more detailed descriptions of star formation and history.
“Our Sparkler study highlights the tremendous power of combining the unique capabilities of JWST with the natural magnification provided by gravitational lenses,” said CANUCS team leader Chris Willott of the National Research Center for Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Herzberg. council. “The team is excited about the new discoveries to come when JWST sets its sights on the CANUCS galaxy clusters next month.”
