The James Webb Space Telescope of NASA has discovered a young galaxy that can be traced back to the early universe. This young galaxy is named the “Firefly Sparkle” galaxy because it resembles fireflies “dancing” on a warm summer night. This discovery provides astronomers with a glimpse into the early glory of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Webb Telescope is the most powerful space telescope ever deployed. According to a press release from NASA, researchers used Webb’s images and data to conclude that if we could measure the weight of galaxies at the time of their formation by “time reversal,” the mass of the “Firefly Sparkle” galaxy would be similar to that of our Milky Way galaxy.
Researchers stated that this galaxy is still in the process of formation, with its formation time estimated to be about 5% of the age of the universe, approximately 600 million years after the birth of the universe. It has a mass equivalent to about 10 million sun-sized stars and has two neighbors, both relatively smaller galaxies, called Firefly-Best Friend and Firefly-New Best Friend.
The “Firefly Sparkle” galaxy is composed of 10 dense star clusters embedded in a diffuse stellar arc, with eight clusters located in the central region and two on the extending arms. The main visible part of the galaxy spans about 1,000 light-years.
This research was published on Wednesday in the journal “Nature.” Lamiya Mowla, a co-lead author of the study from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Center for Astronomy, Space Science, and Astrophysics in Bangladesh, mentioned, “The Milky Way galaxy began forming in the early history of the universe, possibly concurrently with the ‘Firefly Sparkle.'”
“Through simulations and statistical methods, we found that the mass of ‘Firefly Sparkle’ is consistent with the expected mass of the Milky Way’s ancestor in its early stages. At this stage, the mass of this galaxy is about 10,000 times smaller than our current Milky Way, a typical feature of galaxies at that time,” added Mowla.
Explaining the name Firefly Sparkle, Mowla mentioned, “A group of fireflies depicts the appearance of this galaxy, hence described as flickering flashes.”
The distance from Firefly Sparkle to its best Firefly Friend is approximately 6,500 light-years, and to the new best friend Firefly, it is about 42,000 light-years. These three galaxies are all located within the current Milky Way galaxy, which has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years.
“Over billions of years, the Milky Way galaxy has been growing and evolving through mergers with other galaxies and ongoing star formation, while the Firefly Sparkle galaxy we see is in its initial formation stage,” said Kartheik Iyer, an astronomer and co-lead author of the study from NASA’s Hubble Researcher at Columbia University in New York.
“Early galaxies like Firefly Sparkle appear to have formed through the collapse of dense gas clouds in the early universe. Current theories and simulations propose several possible mechanisms to explain how stars formed from gas under extreme conditions in the early universe. Our analysis indicates that these galaxies can be formed by forming giant star clusters in regions of extreme pressure and density, which then merge or grow together over time,” Iyer added.
The star clusters of the galaxy show slightly different colors, indicating that the clusters did not form simultaneously. For example, hotter and younger stars appear more blue, while older stars appear redder.
“Firefly Sparkle” is one of the earliest known low-mass galaxies to date.