Across the universe youtube

The research team carefully analyzed colors of each of the stars inside the Dragon Arc and found that many are red supergiants, similar to Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, which is in the final stages of its life. This contrasts with earlier discoveries, which predominantly identified blue "supergiants" similar to Rigel and Deneb, which are among the brightest stars in the night sky.

According to the researchers, this difference in stellar types also highlights the unique power of JWST observations at infrared wavelengths that could reveal stars at lower temperatures. It was an exciting find because it was the first time we were able to see so many individual stars so far away. Sun, in particular, is excited for the next opportunity to study these red supergiants.

Most galaxies, including the Milky Way, contain tens of billions of stars. In nearby galaxies such as the Andromeda galaxy, astronomers can observe stars one by one.

Across the universe youtube

However, in galaxies billions of light-years away, stars appear blended together as their light needs to travel for billions of light-years before it reaches us, presenting a long-standing challenge to scientists studying how galaxies form and evolve. We just can't resolve them with our telescopes. Recent advances in astronomy have opened new possibilities by leveraging gravitational lensing — a natural magnification effect caused by the strong gravitational fields of massive objects.

As predicted by Albert Einstein, gravitational lenses can amplify the light of distant stars by factors of hundreds or even thousands, making them detectable with sensitive instruments like JWST. These efforts could lead to detailed studies of hundreds of stars in distant galaxies. Moreover, observations of individual stars could provide insight into the structure of gravitational lenses and even shed light on the elusive nature of dark matter.

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