It may be surprisingly tough to check the Milky Method galaxy whilst you’re inside it, however astronomers are at all times on the lookout for related spirals elsewhere within the universe. A group analyzing information from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now says one of many observatory’s first photos might have featured the Milky Method’s twin, a galaxy often known as The Sparkler. As a result of it’s so distant, learning The Sparkler could possibly be like learning our personal galaxy in its infancy.

The Sparkler was revealed within the JWST’s deep field image, which leveraged the telescope’s unimaginable decision and a gravitational lens to see additional again in time than ever earlier than. Proper close to the middle of the picture is a distorted, pinkish disk studded with glowing dots (see above). When the deep subject was launched in the summertime of 2022, scientists speculated that these dots could possibly be globular clusters. The origin of those spherical collections of densely packed stars is a scientific thriller. The group, led by Duncan Forbes of Swinburne College in Australia and Aaron Romanowsky of San Jose State College in California, determined to comply with up.

Within the newly published paper, the researchers analyzed the age and metallic content material of the now-confirmed globular clusters. They decided that the clusters resemble youthful variations of those nonetheless current within the Milky Method. A lot of the clusters had been outdated and confirmed excessive metallic content material, however a couple of confirmed decrease metallic content material with an intermediate age — all a part of the globular cluster thriller. The research speculates that The Sparkler, as seen within the Webb picture, is evolving alongside the identical traces as our galaxy.

A younger Milky Method absorbing smaller galaxies. Credit score: James Josephides/Swinburne College

At the moment, The Sparkler would possibly appear like the Milky Method, however our view is considerably delayed. This object within the deep subject picture has a redshift of 1.38, which means it seems as did roughly 9.1 billion years in the past when the universe itself was solely 4 billion years outdated. So, The Sparkler could possibly be a mirror picture of a younger Milky Method, which fashioned with the assistance of globular clusters earlier than it grew to its present measurement. The Sparkler is at the moment small, simply 3% of the Milky Method’s mass, however the group believes a few of these anomalous globular clusters are related to satellite tv for pc galaxies which might be being absorbed. That’s one of many methods the Milky Method grew to its present measurement. “We seem like witnessing, first hand, the meeting of this galaxy because it builds up its mass—within the type of a dwarf galaxy and several other globular clusters,” says Professor Forbes.

We will’t draw many conclusions concerning the Milky Method based mostly on The Spakler. The researchers say extra information on distant globular clusters is required. Solely then will we all know if The Sparkler is consultant of the way in which massive galaxies just like the Milky Method develop by merging with dwarf galaxies and globular clusters.

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