Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (NRC-Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia)

For the first time, astronomers using NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope have identified a galaxy, nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle, that not only is in the process of assembling and forming stars around 600 million years after the big bang, but also weighs about the same as our Milky Way galaxy if we could 鈥渨ind back the clock鈥� to weigh it as it developed. Two companion galaxies are close by, which may ultimately affect how this galaxy forms and builds mass over billions of years.

« Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (NRC-Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia)

In this image from NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope, thousands of glimmering galaxies are bound together by their own gravity, making up a massive cluster formally classified as MACS J1423. The largest, bright white oval is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy cluster acts like a lens, magnifying and distorting the light of objects that lie well behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing.

« Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)

This artist concept depicts a reconstruction of what the Firefly Sparkle galaxy looked like about 600 million years after the big bang if it wasn鈥檛 stretched and distorted by a natural effect known as gravitational lensing. This illustration is based on images and data from NASA鈥檚 James Webb Space Telescope.

« Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way

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