bursts of star formation tagged posts

Intense flashes of light, not mass, resolve the puzzle of impossible brightness. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared too bright, too massive and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang. It would be like an infant growing into an adult within just a couple years.

The startling discovery even caused some physicists to question the standard model of cosmology, wondering whether or not it should be upended.

The unusual cluster Terzan. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/F. Ferraro

A fossilised remnant of the early Milky Way harbouring stars of hugely different ages has been revealed. This stellar system resembles a globular cluster, but is like no other cluster known. It contains stars remarkably similar to the most ancient stars in the Milky Way and bridges the gap in understanding between our galaxy’s past and its present.

Terzan 5, 19 000 light-years from Earth, has been classified as a globular cluster for the 40-odd years since its detection. Now, an Italian-led team of astronomers have discovered that Terzan 5 is like no other globular cluster known...