WELLESLEY, MASS. (WHDH) - A group of local astronomers in Wellesley have made a remarkable discovery -- a new galaxy in outer space.
A Wellesley College-led team of astronomers discovered the "Firefly Sparkle" galaxy, named after its dazzling appearance.
"This looks like fireflies gleaming in a dark night sky," said Dr. Lamiya Mowla.
Mowla is one of the lead researchers on the team. She said they were in awe when looking at the new images captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
"When we first looked at it we were like, 'Oh wow, look at all these colors, look at the fact that you can just see distinct clumps on this thread.' It was just an amazing feeling," Mowla said.
The astronomers said this new galaxy is gleaming with star clusters that formed at different times, much like our own Milky Way. And it appears to be similar in size during the same stage of development.
"It is a galaxy that is being observed 600 million years after the Big Bang," Mowla said. "This is right at the mass range of what we would have expected a baby Milky Way to have been like at this epoch of the universe."
Mowla said this discovery will only help future research.
"We need to find more of these. This one is showing us that JWST is able to capture Milky Way-like galaxies down to their star cluster, so we just have to look at similar regions in other areas of the sky," she said.
She said some astronomers on the team had been waiting to see something like this for decades.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox Email address Submit