Hubble could only guess at them. The James Webb Space Telescope has just revealed them to the world. A multitude of distant galaxies, a primitive cluster, and even the farthest observed red giant star ever!
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[VIDEO] The first images of the James Webb Space Telescope
Discover the first images sent by NASA from the JWST, the space telescope with exceptional performance…
In Spanish, “El Gordo” means “the fat one”. That’s why this nickname was given to the galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915. It is simply the largest known cluster to date in the distant universe. Specifically, in our Universe as it appeared just over 6 billion years ago. This places El Gordo about 7 billion light-years away from Earth.
And a new image returned by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals this cluster of about a hundred galaxies in a new light. With galaxies clearly emerging, whereas they could barely be guessed in the best images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers are particularly interested in the gravitational lensing effect it produces, which they can use to discover background objects.
The first distant red giant star revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope
Among them, a galaxy—frame B, above—located about 10.6 billion light-years away. Distorted by gravitational lensing, it is nicknamed “L’hameçon” (The Hook). Its red color is due to its dust as well as its extreme distance from us. After correcting for distortion, the galaxy appears as a disk only 26,000 light-years wide. A quarter of our Milky Way, or the current distance between Earth and the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy, Sagittarius A*. Astronomers also note that it is already beginning to form fewer stars.
Another galaxy located about 11 billion light-years away appears in the image—frame A. It takes the shape of a pencil line, hence its nickname “La mince” (The Thin). And not far from there, the very first supergiant red star that has been observed at a distance of over one billion light-years from Earth. Thanks to the infrared sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Unveiling the secrets of galaxies and their clusters
Researchers also point out what could be a new cluster of forming galaxies. Just over a billion years after the Big Bang, it may already consist of 17 galaxies.
Also captured in the JWST image are the most distant ultra-diffuse galaxies ever observed. These galaxies appear to have slightly different properties from those seen today.
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