James Webb Space Telescope finds 'hidden stars' making the universe's 1st galaxies much bigger than we knew
James Webb Space Telescope is finding that between the brightest stars, the cosmic skyscrapers, there are much fainter stars, meaning early galaxies are more massive than we believed.
Astronomers have discovered that early galaxies may be significantly more massive than previously thought, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Using the powerful telescope to observe nine early galaxies that had recently finished their intense star formation period, researchers combined their data with measurements from Earth-based telescopes.
What they found was that the proportion of small, faint stars in these galaxies is much greater than in modern galaxies like the Milky Way. This surprising result indicates that the total mass of these early galaxies may be four times greater than previously estimated. The presence of these smaller stars, which were previously hidden by the brighter, more massive stars, challenges existing models of galaxy formation and could imply that more planets formed in the early universe than once thought.
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