James Webb Space Telescope Finds Smallest Known Galaxy

James Webb Space Telescope May Have Found A New One dwarf galaxy, a thousand times less massive than the Milky Way. If the discovery is confirmed, the system called La Flaca could be the smallest known and the most distant system in the Universe.

The existence of the small galaxy has been suggested in a new study conducted at the University of Cantabria in Spain. The team used the powerful instrument’s infrared sensors, along with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink in the image below).

To visualize this goal, research is the biggest galaxy clusterNicknamed El Gordo – It is located 7 billion light-years from Earth. It acts as a gravitational lens because of its massive mass, largely made up of dark matter (shown in blue) and radiation emission.

In cosmology, gravitational lensing—an effect predicted in Einstein’s theory of relativity—works as a method of analyzing the structure and expansion of the Universe. This is because they amplify the light emitted by stars and galaxies, allowing access to more distant regions.

However, the work may have provided a new map of the ends of the Cosmos. In addition to the dwarf galaxy, the team detected 28 new galaxies and 1 red supergiant star – unprecedented outside our local universe.

For those unfamiliar with astronomical terms, the name “dwarf galaxy” may give a false impression of its proportions. In the case of La Flaca, it is about 1 billion times heavier than our sun due to the enormous amount of stars present in the system.

Further study of the galaxy and even its stars can help discover objects and their positions more precisely. Currently, such measurements are made by observing supernovae. But this powerful and bright starburst often lacks detail.