Mar 15, 2025, 06:58 AM IST
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.
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.
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.
Starburst spiral NGC 4536 is bright with blue clusters of star formation and pink clumps of ionized hydrogen.
This illustration shows the Milky Way, our home galaxy.
Visible light Hubble data combined with infrared data from Spitzer, went into creating this stunning image of M51, the Whirlpool galaxy.
NGC 3344 is a glorious spiral galaxy around half the size of the Milky Way.
Giant elliptical galaxy, M87. Giant ellipticals and grand spirals are thought to be the result of galaxy collisions.
The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of interacting galaxies Arp 142 seems to sing in primary colors.