Until now, astronomers could not see the surrounding compact objects of the Sparkler galaxy with Hubble. '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. Iyer, of the University of Toronto and co-lead author of the study, said: '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. 'Think of it as guessing a person's age based on their appearance - it's easy to tell the difference between a 5 and 10-year-old, but hard to tell the difference between a 50 and 55-year-old.' Until now, astronomers could not see the surrounding compact objects of the Sparkler galaxy with Hubble Globular clusters are ancient collections of stars from a galaxy's infancy and contain clues about its earliest phases of formation and growth.įrom their initial analysis of 12 of these compact objects, the experts established that five of them are not only globular clusters but among the oldest ones known. They assumed that the sparkles could either be young clusters of actively-forming stars - born three billion years after the Big Bang at the peak of star formation - or old globular clusters. These dense groups of millions of stars may be relics that contain the first and oldest stars in the universe.ĭubbed 'the Sparkler galaxy', it got its name thanks to the compact objects appearing as small yellow-red dots surrounding it, referred to by researchers as 'sparkles.' Now, early analysis has zeroed in on one of these galaxies nine billion light-years away from Earth, and revealed that it is sparkling with some of the oldest-known star clusters, dating back to shortly after the Big Bang. And thankfully, it has promise.One of the first spectacular images taken by NASA's new multi-million pound James Webb Space Telescope captured the universe's earliest galaxies. Currently scheduled to launch in 2024, Europa Clipper will be stationed around Europa in order to perform repeated flybys and investigate whether this world really harbors an ocean capable of sustaining life.īut until Europa Clipper launches, the data collected during Juno's flyby will have to sustain researchers. While Juno’s recent flyby of Europa was short - just two hours - its observations will be used to support future missions to the intriguing moon, including NASA’s Europa Clipper. Europa's water would be locked in a subsurface ocean buried miles beneath its icy surface, but researchers think it still could host the conditions necessary to support life. Hidden beneath this worn and gnarled surface may be a haven for life, as Europa is one of the worlds in our solar system that scientists think could harbor liquid water. Near the terminator, the boundary between light and dark, lies a strange pit that might be a degraded impact crater. Bright and dark ridges and troughs crisscross the surface like scars. And thanks to the contrast between the day and nightside, terrain features are also brought into view. The craft’s JunoCam zoomed in on Annwn Regio, a fractured region near Europa’s equator. One look at the image above and you can get a sense of how close Juno got to the jovian moon. The pass was only a mile shy of the closest visit on record, set by NASA’s Galileo mission in 2000. Juno swept within 219 miles (352 kilometers) of the icy world on Thursday, Sept.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft just made the closest flyby of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, in over two decades.
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