The very first suns enlightened the universe on this photo of James-Webb?

Deal Score0
Deal Score0

Abells1063, the cluster that makes it possible to amplify the background light of the galaxies of the first ages of the universe seen by the JWST.

Abells1063, the cluster that makes it possible to amplify the background light of the galaxies of the first ages of the universe seen by the JWST.

© NASA/ESA

It is not without the cliché From the most aesthetic James-Webb space telescope, but it could be a date and mark a crucial step in our need for understanding the universe.

Advertising, your content continues below

This deep field image, which seems to spin in front of the spectator, shows a very distant flood of galaxies: the central cluster is around 4.5 billion light years. These are certainly not the most distant galaxies ever seen by the James-Webb. But the most fascinating are around …

This quest for the first suns is the most poetic of all astrophysics …

Take the time to recall this fact that is both bizarre and logical: because of the time that sheds light to cross the space between its emission moment and its capture by our telescopes, we see the past of the universe. By perceiving lights that have traveled for 13 billion years, we see things going back to the first billion years of the universe, the latter having 13.78.

We are entering here the most poetic quest for all astrophysics: in search of the very first levers of suns of the universe, of the very first star lights to have traveled and violated the darkness of space …

Around the Abell S1063 cluster, the population stars III?

In this whirlwind of distorted orange galaxies, like a scene seen through a window wet in rain, that’s where everything is played out. This is the phenomenon of gravitational lensoften explained here, which allows you to see much further, deep and early in history, than the 4.5 billion light years of the central cluster.

Advertising, your content continues below

Diagram of a gravitational lens with a pile of pre-planning galaxy whose mass distorting the space amplifies the light rays from the background.

Diagram of a gravitational lens with a pile of pre-planning galaxy whose mass distorting the space amplifies the light rays from the background.

© NASA/ESA/L.CALçADA

In a publication From the beginning of 2025, a group of astrophyscians shows that these famous orange galaxies and distorted by the gravitational lens are interesting candidates for the crucial research of the very first stars of the universe, called “population III”.

Population stars III are stars that have no heavier element than helium: no carbon or oxygen and even less iron, which will be just synthesized in their hearts shortly before exploding. They have also had very brief lifespan and none no longer exists “nowadays”.

The authors show that according to them, the James-Webb (thanks to the Nircam) can discriminate galaxies lit by such stars, playing in particular on the different filters of the telescope.

At the different wavelengths, a galaxy candidate of pop III stars is revealed ...

At the different wavelengths, a galaxy candidate of pop III stars is revealed …

© NASA/ESA/Nircam/Seiji Fujimoto et al, Arxiv 2025

GLIMPSE-16043, a serious candidate galaxy for the first stars?

This primordial quest for population stars III (the sun is of the current population, Pop I) is crossing the course of the theoretical astrophysics. A robot portrait of galaxies hosting first generation stars had therefore been brushed: it would be very distant, very weakly bright galaxies and whose stellar spectrum would show an absence of heavy elements called “metals”, these atoms heavier than helium.

This periodic table shows the astrophysical origin of the elements of the solar system. All elements following helium are called

This periodic table shows the astrophysical origin of the elements of the solar system. All the elements following helium are called “metals”.

© NASA

GLIMPSE-16043 (which has a Red offset From Z = 6.5 for connoisseurs) corresponds to this robot portrait.
However, scientists are not getting carried away. It’s a bit early: she could be a false candidate. Admittedly, it shows the strong emission of expected hydrogen, no “metals” and an emerging population of stars.

However, the authors recognize that it could also be a galaxy extremely poor in metals, without being a nursery of first stars in the universe: it would be at the limits of what is possible. It could also be an active nucleus galaxy (AGN) whose brightness-metallicity ratio imitates that expected for a galaxy filled with pop III stars.

But this galaxy, GLIMPS-16043, as well as JOF-21739 are, to date two of the best candidates for this research.

A few months ago, the James-Webb also made it possible to find A distant galaxy containing strangely hot stars And which therefore also put on the track of the stars of population III …

Advertising, your content continues below

Want to save even more? Discover Our promo codes Selected for you.

More Info

We will be happy to hear your thoughts

Leave a reply

Bonplans French
Logo