A “swarm” of seven galaxies was discovered at a distance that astronomers call redshift 7.9, according to the research, published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The discovery showed the formation of the cluster just 650 million years after the Big Bang.
“This is a very special, unique site of accelerated galaxy evolution, and Webb has given us the unprecedented ability to measure the velocities of these seven galaxies and confirm with confidence that they are bound together in a protoclusterTakahiro Morishita, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
Precise measurements of the cluster captured by Webb’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) were essential to confirm the galaxies’ collective distance and the high speeds at which they travel, the scientists said.
The data obtained by Webb allowed the researchers to model and map the future evolution of the cluster up to the present moment in the modern universe.
The seven galaxies confirmed in the new study were determined for the first time as candidates for observation by Webb, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Because the Hubble telescope cannot detect light beyond the near-infrared wavelength of light, Webb took over the investigation, focusing on the galaxies surveyed by Hubble.
„It’s amazing the science we can dream of doing now that we have Webb.” said study co-author Tommaso Treu of the University of California, Los Angeles.
With the discovery of this group of seven galaxies at such a distance, researchers hope to better understand the timeline of the early development of the universe.
They predict that the newly discovered cluster will eventually be among the densest collections of galaxies known, containing thousands of members with the potential to dramatically warp the very fabric of space-time.
„We can see these distant galaxies as little drops of water in different rivers, and we can see that eventually they will all become part of one big and mighty river.”said Benedetta Vulcani, another author of the study from the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy.
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