But it is incredibly challenging to measure their ages. The study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters sheds light on how and when these dense clumps of stars formed. The Milky Way galaxy has about 150 globular clusters. LOOK: Scientists Stunned by New Jupiter Images With Galaxies ‘Photobombing’ the Webb Telescope “We hope the knowledge that globular clusters can be observed at from such great distances with JWST will spur further science and searches for similar objects.”

“Since we could observe the sparkles across a range of wavelengths, we could model them and better understand their physical properties, like how old they are and how many stars they contain,” said Dr. credit / NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI Difficult analysis would follow Southern Ring Nebula imaged with two different Webb instruments. Incredibly though, examination of the globular clusters spotted in this tiny area of space revealed that five of the clusters were among the oldest ever recorded.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the unveiling of the telescope’s first images, said that the Deep Field contained very little of the galaxy, approximately as much as if one were to hold a grain of sand on the end of their finger, extend their arm and hand and measure the sand grain against the sky itself. The Sparkler got its name for the compact objects appearing as small yellow-red dots surrounding it, referred to by the researchers as ‘sparkles,’ and which turned out to be the globular clusters. “Looking at the first images from JWST and discovering old globular clusters around distant galaxies was an incredible moment, one that wasn’t possible with previous Hubble Space Telescope imaging,” said Iyer.

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