James Webb Space Telescope spots galaxy from early universe rich in star formation [View all]

By Samantha Mathewson published about 11 hours ago

'We found this galaxy to be super-chemically abundant, something none of us expected.'



A gravitationally lensed view of a ring-shaped slice of the galaxy SPT0418-47, as seen by the ALMA array in Chile. Recent observations by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal that the galaxy has a satellite that's rich in star formation.
A gravitationally lensed view of a ring-shaped slice of the galaxy SPT0418-47, as seen by the ALMA array in Chile. Recent observations by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal that the galaxy has a satellite that's rich in star formation. (Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Rizzo et al.)

New images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed that a well-known early galaxy has an overshadowed companion that is abundant with star formation.

JWST's initial target was SPT0418-47, one of the brightest dusty, star-forming galaxies in the early universe. Given it is an extremely distant galaxy — it lies about 12 billion light-years from Earth — its light is bent and magnified by the gravity of another galaxy in the foreground (located between SPT0418-47 and the space telescope), creating a near perfect circle called an Einstein ring.

Using the JWST, astronomers were able to get a clearer view of SPT0418-47 and spotted a curious blob of light shining near the galaxy's outer edge. As it turns out, the blob represents a companion galaxy previously overshadowed by the light of the foreground galaxy, according to a statement(opens in new tab) from Cornell University.

"We found this galaxy to be super-chemically abundant, something none of us expected," Bo Peng, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in astronomy at Cornell, said in the statement. "JWST changes the way we view this system and opens up new venues to study how stars and galaxies formed in the early universe."

More:
https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-metal-rich-galaxy-photo