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By European Space Agency
For the first time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has detected and ‘weighed’ a galaxy, in the early Universe, that has a mass that is similar to what our Milky Way galaxy’s mass might have been at the same stage of development. Found at around 600 million years after the Big Bang, this lightweight galaxy, nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle, is gleaming with star clusters – 10 in total – that researchers examined in great detail. Other galaxies Webb has detected at this period in the history of the Universe are significantly more massive.
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By NASA
Webb Webb News Latest News Latest Images Blog (offsite) Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read Found: First Actively Forming Galaxy as Lightweight as Young Milky Way
Hundreds of overlapping objects at various distances are spread across this field. At the very center is a tiny galaxy nicknamed Firefly Sparkle that looks like a long, angled, dotted line. Smaller companions are nearby. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (National Research Council Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia University) For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected and “weighed” a galaxy that not only existed around 600 million years after the big bang, but is also similar to what our Milky Way galaxy’s mass might have been at the same stage of development. Other galaxies Webb has detected at this time period are significantly more massive. Nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle, this galaxy is gleaming with star clusters — 10 in all — each of which researchers examined in great detail.
Image A: Firefly Sparkle Galaxy and Companions in Galaxy Cluster MACS J1423 (NIRCam Image)
For the first time, astronomers using NASA’s 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 “wind back the clock” 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. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (National Research Council Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia University) “I didn’t think it would be possible to resolve a galaxy that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components, let alone find that its mass is similar to our own galaxy’s when it was in the process of forming,” said Lamiya Mowla, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. “There is so much going on inside this tiny galaxy, including so many different phases of star formation.”
Webb was able to image the galaxy in crisp detail for two reasons. One is a benefit of the cosmos: A massive foreground galaxy cluster radically enhanced the distant galaxy’s appearance through a natural effect known as gravitational lensing. And when combined with the telescope’s specialization in high-resolution infrared light, Webb delivered unprecedented new data about the galaxy’s contents.
Image B: Galaxy Cluster MACS J1423 (NIRCam Image)
In this image from NASA’s 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. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (National Research Council Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia University) “Without the benefit of this gravitational lens, we would not be able to resolve this galaxy,” said Kartheik Iyer, co-lead author and NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York. “We knew to expect it based on current physics, but it’s surprising that we actually saw it.”
Mowla, who spotted the galaxy in Webb’s image, was drawn to its gleaming star clusters, because objects that sparkle typically indicate they are extremely clumpy and complicated. Since the galaxy looks like a “sparkle” or swarm of lightning bugs on a warm summer night, they named it the Firefly Sparkle galaxy.
Reconstructing the Galaxy’s Appearance
The research team modeled what the galaxy might have looked like if it weren’t stretched and discovered that it resembled an elongated raindrop. Suspended within it are two star clusters toward the top and eight toward the bottom. “Our reconstruction shows that clumps of actively forming stars are surrounded by diffuse light from other unresolved stars,” said Iyer. “This galaxy is literally in the process of assembling.”
Webb’s data shows the Firefly Sparkle galaxy is on the smaller side, falling into the category of a low-mass galaxy. Billions of years will pass before it builds its full heft and a distinct shape. “Most of the other galaxies Webb has shown us aren’t magnified or stretched, and we are not able to see their ‘building blocks’ separately. With Firefly Sparkle, we are witnessing a galaxy being assembled brick by brick,” Mowla said.
Stretched Out and Shining, Ready for Close Analysis
Since the galaxy is warped into a long arc, the researchers easily picked out 10 distinct star clusters, which are emitting the bulk of the galaxy’s light. They are represented here in shades of pink, purple, and blue. Those colors in Webb’s images and its supporting spectra confirmed that star formation didn’t happen all at once in this galaxy, but was staggered in time.
“This galaxy has a diverse population of star clusters, and it is remarkable that we can see them separately at such an early age of the universe,” said Chris Willott from the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, a co-author and the observation program’s principal investigator. “Each clump of stars is undergoing a different phase of formation or evolution.”
The galaxy’s projected shape shows that its stars haven’t settled into a central bulge or a thin, flattened disk, another piece of evidence that the galaxy is still forming.
Image C: Illustration of the Firefly Sparkle Galaxy in the Early Universe (Artist’s Concept)
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’t stretched and distorted by a natural effect known as gravitational lensing. This illustration is based on images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI). Science: Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Guillaume Desprez (Saint Mary’s University) Video: “Firefly Sparkle” Reveals Early Galaxy
‘Glowing’ Companions
Researchers can’t predict how this disorganized galaxy will build up and take shape over billions of years, but there are two galaxies that the team confirmed are “hanging out” within a tight perimeter and may influence how it builds mass over billions of years.
Firefly Sparkle is only 6,500 light-years away from its first companion, and its second companion is separated by 42,000 light-years. For context, the fully formed Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across — all three would fit inside it. Not only are its companions very close, the researchers also think that they are orbiting one another.
Each time one galaxy passes another, gas condenses and cools, allowing new stars to form in clumps, adding to the galaxies’ masses. “It has long been predicted that galaxies in the early universe form through successive interactions and mergers with other tinier galaxies,” said Yoshihisa Asada, a co-author and doctoral student at Kyoto University in Japan. “We might be witnessing this process in action.”
The team’s research relied on data from Webb’s CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), which includes near-infrared images from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and spectra from the microshutter array aboard NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph). The CANUCS data intentionally covered a field that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope imaged as part of its Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) program.
This work has been published on December 11, 2024 in the journal Nature.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxy clusters Goddard Space Flight Center Gravitational Lensing James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research The Universe View the full article
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft in silhouette against Europa’s surface, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed at top and the antennas for the radar instrument extending out from the solar arrays.NASA/JPL-Caltech Headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the spacecraft is operating without a hitch and will reach Mars in just three months for a gravity assist.
NASA’s Europa Clipper, which launched Oct. 14 on a journey to Jupiter’s moon Europa, is already 13 million miles (20 million kilometers) from Earth. Two science instruments have deployed hardware that will remain at attention, extending out from the spacecraft, for the next decade — through the cruise to Jupiter and the entire prime mission.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched it away from Earth’s gravity, and now the spacecraft is zooming along at 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun.
Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and in 2031 will begin a series of 49 flybys, using a suite of instruments to gather data that will tell scientists if the icy moon and its internal ocean have the conditions needed to harbor life.
For now, the information mission teams are receiving from the spacecraft is strictly engineering data (the science will come later), telling them how the hardware is operating. Things are looking good. The team has a checklist of actions the spacecraft needs to take as it travels deeper into space. Here’s a peek:
Boom Times
Shortly after launch, the spacecraft deployed its massive solar arrays, which extend the length of a basketball court. Next on the list was the magnetometer’s boom, which uncoiled from a canister mounted on the spacecraft body, extending a full 28 feet (8.5 meters).
To confirm that all went well with the boom deployment, the team relied on data from the magnetometer’s three sensors. Once the spacecraft is at Jupiter, these sensors will measure the magnetic field around Europa, both confirming the presence of the ocean thought to be under the moon’s icy crust and telling scientists about its depth and salinity.
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This animation shows how the boom of Europa Clipper’s magnetometer deployed — while the spacecraft was in flight — to its full length of 28 feet (8.5 meters). NASA/JPL-Caltech On the Radar
After the magnetometer, the spacecraft deployed several antennas for the radar instrument. Now extending crosswise from the solar arrays, the four high-frequency antennas form what look like two long poles, each measuring 57.7 feet (17.6 meters) long. Eight rectangular very-high-frequency antennas, each 9 feet (2.76 meters) long, were also deployed — two on the two solar arrays.
“It’s an exciting time on the spacecraft, getting these key deployments done,” said Europa Clipper project manager Jordan Evans of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Most of what the team is focusing on now is understanding the small, interesting things in the data that help them understand the behavior of the spacecraft on a deeper level. That’s really good to see.”
Instrument Checkout
The remaining seven instruments will be powered on and off through December and January so that engineers can check their health. Several instruments, including the visible imager and the gas and dust mass spectrometers, will keep their protective covers closed for the next three or so years to guard against potential damage from the Sun during Europa Clipper’s time in the inner solar system.
Mars-Bound
Once all the instruments and engineering subsystems have been checked out, mission teams will shift their focus to Mars. On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper will reach Mars’ orbit and begin to loop around the Red Planet, using the planet’s gravity to gain speed. (This effect is similar to how a ball thrown at a moving train will bounce off the train in another direction at a higher speed.) Mission navigators already have completed one trajectory correction maneuver, as planned, to get the spacecraft on the precise course.
At Mars, scientists plan to turn on the spacecraft’s thermal imager to capture multicolored images of Mars as a test operation. They also plan to collect data with the radar instrument so engineers can be sure it’s operating as expected.
The spacecraft will perform another gravity assist in December 2026, swooping by Earth before making the remainder of the long journey to the Jupiter system. At that time, the magnetometer will measure Earth’s magnetic field, calibrating the instrument.
More About Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, managed the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Find more information about Europa Clipper here:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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NASA Headquarters, Washington
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Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Related Terms
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5 Min Read Hats Off to NASA’s Webb: Sombrero Galaxy Dazzles in New Image
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI In a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a galaxy named for its resemblance to a broad-brimmed Mexican hat appears more like an archery target.
In Webb’s mid-infrared view of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104), the signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring, which appeared smooth like a blanket in imaging from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
Image A: Sombrero Galaxy (MIRI Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring. This image includes filters representing 7.7-micron light as blue, 11.3-micron light as green, and 12.8-micron light as red. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Image B: Sombrero Galaxy (Hubble and Webb Image)
Image Before/After Researchers say the clumpy nature of the dust, where MIRI detects carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, can indicate the presence of young star-forming regions. However, unlike some galaxies studied with Webb, including Messier 82, where 10 times as many stars are born than the Milky Way galaxy, the Sombrero galaxy is not a particular hotbed of star formation. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year.
Even the supermassive black hole, also known as an active galactic nucleus, at the center of the Sombrero galaxy is rather docile, even at a hefty 9-billion-solar masses. It’s classified as a low luminosity active galactic nucleus, slowly snacking on infalling material from the galaxy, while sending off a bright, relatively small, jet.
Also within the Sombrero galaxy dwell some 2,000 globular clusters, collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity. This type of system serves as a pseudo laboratory for astronomers to study stars — thousands of stars within one system with the same age, but varying masses and other properties is an intriguing opportunity for comparison studies.
In the MIRI image, galaxies of varying shapes and colors litter the background of space. The different colors of these background galaxies can tell astronomers about their properties, including how far away they are.
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Video: Sombrero Galaxy Fade (Spitzer, Webb, Hubble)
A Bright Future Ahead
Stunning images like this, and an array of discoveries in the study of exoplanets, galaxies through time, star formation, and our own solar system, are still just the beginning. Recently, scientists from all over the world applied for observation time with Webb during its fourth year of science operations, which begins in July 2025.
General Observer time with Webb is more competitive than ever. A record-breaking 2,377 proposals were submitted by the Oct. 15, 2024, deadline, requesting about 78,000 hours of observation time. This is an oversubscription rate, the ratio defining the observation hours requested versus the actual time available in one year of Webb’s operations, of around 9 to 1.
The proposals cover a wide array of science topics, with distant galaxies being among the most requested observation time, followed by exoplanet atmospheres, stars and stellar populations, then exoplanet systems.
The Space Telescope Science Institute manages the proposal and program selection process for NASA. The submissions will now be evaluated by a Telescope Allocation Committee, a group of hundreds of members of the worldwide astronomical community, on a dual-anonymous basis, with selections announced in March 2025.
While time on Webb is limited, data from all of Webb’s programs is publicly archived, immediately after it’s taken, or after a time of exclusive access, in the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) so it can be used by anyone in the world.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun – hbraun@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
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More images: Images of the Sombrero Galaxy in different types of light
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Related For Kids
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What is the Webb Telescope?
SpacePlace for Kids
En Español
¿Qué es una galaxia?
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Space Place para niños
Keep Exploring Related Topics
James Webb Space Telescope
Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Galaxies
Galaxies Stories
Messier 104 (The Sombrero Galaxy)
Hubble easily resolves some of the Sombrero galaxy’s roughly 2,000 globular clusters.
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Last Updated Nov 25, 2024 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Astrophysics Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research Spiral Galaxies The Universe View the full article
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By European Space Agency
A new mid-infrared image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features the Sombrero galaxy, also known as Messier 104 (M104). The signature, glowing core seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed. The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the Universe, is distributed. The galaxy’s outer ring shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
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