Webb Space Telescope sees a massive protocluster of galaxies in the early universe

A protocluster of seven galaxies was first confirmed at a redshift distance of 7.9.

According to the European Space Agency – an international partner of the James Webb Space Telescope along with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency – the term “redshift” refers to how the wavelength of light is stretched and considered to be “shifted” towards the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The higher the redshift, the further and further back in time the source is.

In this case, the galaxy protocluster was just 650 million years after the big bang, according to data collected using the telescope. Using this data, astronomers calculated the cluster’s future development, finding that it will likely grow in size and mass to resemble the Coma cluster.

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The seven galaxies highlighted in this James Webb Space Telescope image have been confirmed to be at a distance astronomers call redshift 7.9, which is 650 million years after the big bang. This makes them the first galaxies to be spectroscopically confirmed as part of a developing cluster. (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, T. Morishita (IPAC). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI))

The Coma cluster contains thousands of galaxies and is over 20 million light-years across.

Measurements captured by the telescope’s near-infrared spectrograph, one of Webb’s instruments, were key to confirming the distance of galaxies and the high speeds moving with a halo of dark matter, at more than two million miles per hour. .

“This is a very special and unique site of accelerated galaxy evolution, and Webb has given us the unprecedented ability to measure the velocities of these seven galaxies and confidently confirm that they are bound together in a protocluster,” said Takahiro Morishita of IPAC-California Institute of Technology. , the lead author of the study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, said in a statement.

Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys imaged much of the coma cluster, spanning several million light-years. (Credit: NASA, ESA and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgments: D. Carter (Liverpool John Moores University) and Coma HST ACS Treasury Team.)

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Galaxy clusters are the greatest concentrations of mass in the known universe, and they can dramatically warp the fabric of spacetime in a process called “gravitational lensing.”

The researchers were able to look through the Pandora cluster to see the protocluster, thanks to this magnifying effect.

GREENBELT, MD – NOVEMBER 2: A technician stands next to the James Webb Space Telescope during assembly November 2, 2016, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images))

The seven galaxies confirmed by Webb were first established as candidates for observation using the Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program, which devoted Hubble’s time to observations using gravitational lenses. However, while Hubble cannot detect light beyond near infrared, Webb was designed to observe infrared wavelengths.

The observatory has detailed spectroscopic data in addition to imagery.

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NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have 200 times Hubble’s infrared field of view in a single shot and be able to identify more protocluster galaxy candidates. This mission is expected to be launched by May 2027.