The galaxy is the smallest galaxy this far away, about 500 million years after the Big Bang. Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a small galaxy 13 billion years ago that was producing new stars at a high rate for its size. This revolutionary discovery could help scientists learn about the early universe and the formation of the first galaxies.

Using first-of-its-kind data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a University of Minnesota-led Twin Cities team looked back more than 13 billion years to discover a unique miniature galaxy that is creating new stars at an extremely high rate. for its size. This galaxy is one of the smallest galaxies ever discovered, about 500 million years after the Big Bang, and could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that existed shortly after the universe began.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota were one of the first teams to study the distant galaxy using the James Webb Space Telescope, and their findings will be among the first to be published.

“This galaxy is far beyond the reach of all telescopes except James Webb, and these observations are impressive, the first of its kind for a distant galaxy,” said Patrick Kelly, senior author of the paper and an associate professor at the university. Minnesota Schools of Physics and Astronomy. “We can see most of the way to the Big Bang here, and we’ve never looked at galaxies in such detail when the universe was so young. The galaxy’s volume is about one-millionth that of the Milky Way, but we see the same number of stars forming in it each year.”

The James Webb Telescope can observe a wide enough field to view the entire galaxy cluster at once. Researchers were able to locate and study this tiny new galaxy, thanks to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, where mass bends and magnifies light, as in a galaxy or galaxy cluster. Lensing the galaxy cluster made this small background galaxy appear 20 times brighter than when the cluster did not magnify its light.

The researchers then used spectroscopy to measure how far away the galaxy was in addition to some of its physical and chemical properties. Studying galaxies that existed when the universe was much younger could help scientists get closer to answering a big question in astronomy about how the universe reionized.

First author of the article and Ph.D. Student at the Minnesota Astrophysics Institute. “This discovery could help us learn more about the properties of these early galaxies, how they differed from their neighbors, and how earlier galaxies formed.”

The James Webb Telescope can collect about 10 times more light than the Hubble Space Telescope and is much more sensitive to redder and longer wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. According to the researchers, this gives scientists access to a whole new window of data.

“The James Webb Space Telescope has an incredible ability to see the universe extremely far,” Williams said. “That’s one of the most interesting things about this document. We’re seeing things that previous telescopes have never been able to capture. In essence, we’re getting a snapshot of our universe for the first 500 million years of its life.”