Astronomers discover ‘tiny’ galaxy that could reveal insights into the origin of the universe

Scientists have discovered a unique, “tiny” galaxy that spawned new stars at an extremely high rate for its size. One of the smallest galaxies ever identified from a distance, about 500 million years after the Big Bang, it could help astronomers understand data about the emergence of the universe.

The unprecedented observations were made using the James Webb Space Telescope, by the team led by the University of Minnesota, in the United States. The findings were published in science magazine.

“This galaxy is far beyond the reach of all telescopes except James Webb, and these first-ever observations of the distant galaxy are spectacular,” said Patrick Kelly, senior author of the paper and assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California. Minnesota, in a statement.

“Here, we can see most of the way back to the Big Bang, and we’ve never looked at galaxies when the universe was so young in this level of detail. The volume of the galaxy is approximately one millionth the volume of the Milky Way, but we can see that it still forms the same number of stars each year”, he details.

The James Webb Telescope can observe a field wide enough to view an entire galaxy cluster at once.

The researchers were able to find and study this new, “tiny” galaxy because of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing — where mass, like that of a galaxy or galaxy cluster, bends and magnifies light. A galaxy cluster lens made this tiny galaxy appear 20 times brighter than it would if the cluster wasn’t magnifying its light.

Astronomers then used a technique called spectroscopy to measure the galaxy’s distance, as well as some of its physical and chemical properties. For specialists, the study of galaxies like this one can bring new elements to explain the origin of the universe.

“The galaxies that existed when the universe was in its ‘infancy’ are very different from what we see in the nearby universe now,” explained Hayley Williams, first author of the article – not the American singer of the band Paramore, student at the Institute of Minnesota for Astrophysics. “This discovery could help us learn more about the characteristics of these early galaxies, how they differ from nearby galaxies, and how earlier galaxies formed.”

The James Webb Telescope can collect about 10 times more light than the Hubble Telescope. Also, it is much more sensitive at longer and red wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. This allows, for example, scientists to access an entirely new window of data, the researchers detail.

“The James Webb Space Telescope has this amazing ability to see extremely far into the universe,” said Hayley. “This is one of the most exciting things about this study. We are seeing things that previous telescopes would never have been able to capture. It’s basically getting a snapshot of our universe in the first 500 million years of its life.”