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The Discovery of Firefly Sparkle
Context:
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured an extraordinary image of a distant galaxy, named Firefly Sparkle offering a rare glimpse into the early stages of galaxy formation.
More on News:
- The observation of Firefly Sparkle was made possible due to gravitational lensing, where a cluster of galaxies between JWST and Firefly Sparkle amplified its light.
- This phenomenon magnified the galaxy’s light by 16-26 times, allowing astronomers to observe fine details that would otherwise be too faint to detect.
About Firefly Sparkle:
- Location and Distance: Firefly Sparkle is located about 13 billion light-years away, meaning its light took 13 billion years to reach us.
- This places Firefly Sparkle in the universe’s infancy, just 600 million years after the Big Bang
- Formation Timeline: Firefly Sparkle is an infant galaxy, formed 100-400 million years after the Big Bang, which occurred around 13.8 billion years ago.
- Galaxy Characteristics:
- Mass: Approximately 10 million stars the size of our sun.
- Structure: Comprises 10 densely packed star clusters within a diffuse arc of stars, with its main visible part spanning 1,000 light-years.
- Neighbouring Galaxies: Firefly-Best Friend and Firefly-New Best Friend are smaller galaxies nearby.
Similarity to the Milky Way:
- Firefly Sparkle resembles what the Milky Way might have looked like in its infancy.
- Mass is consistent with the expected mass of a Milky Way ancestor at that time (about 10,000 times less massive than the current Milky Way).
- The Milky Way continued to evolve over billions of years through mergers and star formation.
Significance:
- This discovery provides astronomers with a direct look at what galaxies like the Milky Way might have looked like in their infancy.
- By studying Firefly Sparkle, researchers can gain insights into the processes of galaxy formation and evolution, helping to piece together the cosmic puzzle of how galaxies like our own came to be.
