James Webb Space Telescope Digs Up 'Cosmic Gems' From Big Bang Era

Numerous dense star clusters that originated close to the Big Bang may hold the key to unlocking a so far unexplored period of the universe’s history. The Cosmic Gems arc contains star clusters that were formed about 460 million years after the Big Bang and have been discovered by astronomers through the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

This is the first time star clusters have been discovered in an infant galaxy when the universe was less than 500 million years old. The visuals of the discovery were shared by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Instagram.

The Space Agency described the latest discovery in the caption starting with, “Imagine peering back in time to just 460 million years after the Big Bang, when galaxies were mere infants.”

The Space Agency went on to say that the discovery of huge infant star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc gives us a good glimpse of the beginning stages of a process that might lead to the formation of globular clusters.

In addition to being large, dense, and contained inside a little area of their host galaxy, the recently discovered arc clusters are the primary source of ultraviolet radiation emanating from their home galaxy.

Using Webb, they stated, that we can witness the birth of stars and the workings of young galaxies at unprecedented distances.

The post has almost 9 thousand likes on the social media platform.

A user commented, “It’s a great, big and amazing universe.”

Another user said, “Bro. How is there so much of it? It’s all so beautiful. I can’t.”

“So freakin’ beautiful,” read another comment.

The Cosmic Gems arc is a gravitationally lensed infant galaxy located around 13.3 billion light-years from Earth, first seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

That implies light from this galaxy, as observed through the JWST, has been continuously travelling to Earth for almost 97% of the lifespan of the universe.

Cosmic Gems Arc is only seen by a technique known as strong lensing.

When a large item is in front of a farther-off object from our perspective, something happens. Gravity from the closer item bends space like a lens, revealing the farther away object.

Researchers have identified five objects that are forming globular clusters within the Cosmic Gems Arc.

Some of the earliest stars in the cosmos may be found in these clusters.

The results of Cosmic Gems Arc are described in a recent paper that was published in Nature.