The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered what may be the earliest star clusters in the universe within a galaxy called the Cosmic Gems arc.
The Cosmic Gems arc formed 460 million years after the Big Bang and appears arc-shaped when viewed from Earth due to gravitational lensing from a foreground galaxy. This lensing effect magnifies the distant galaxy.
JWST observed five proto-globular clusters, which are dense swarms of millions of stars bound by gravity, within the Cosmic Gems arc. These may be some of the first star clusters to have formed.
The clusters suggest that galaxies in the early universe formed stars much more efficiently, luminously, and in denser clusters than previously thought. This is reshaping scientific understanding of early galaxy formation.
Stellar feedback from the cluster stars would have been intense as stars expelled material. Further JWST spectroscopic analysis will study the cluster properties to learn more about the early universe’s first light.
Source: Live Science
