Scientists find 14 new transient objects in space by peering through the ‘Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster’

A world workforce of scientists, led by College of Missouri’s Haojing Yan, used NASA’s James Webb House Telescope (JWST) to find 14 new transient objects throughout their time-lapse research of galaxy cluster MACS0416—situated about 4.3 billion gentle years from Earth—which they’ve dubbed “The Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster.”

“Transients are objects in space, like particular person stars, that seem to immediately brighten by orders of magnitudes after which fade away,” stated Yan, an affiliate professor within the Division of Physics and Astronomy.

“These transient objects seem vibrant for under a brief time period after which are gone; it is like we’re peering via a shifting magnifying glass. Proper now, we have now this uncommon likelihood that nature has given us to get an in depth view of particular person stars which might be situated very far-off. Whereas we’re presently solely capable of see the brightest ones, if we do that lengthy sufficient—and incessantly sufficient—we will decide what number of bright stars there are, and the way huge they’re.”

Utilizing the superior technological capabilities of the JWST, Yan and his workforce, together with Mizzou graduate pupil Bangzheng Solar, confirmed what’s inflicting the galaxy cluster’s “flickering lights” or transients that scientists first noticed years in the past utilizing NASA’s Hubble House Telescope.

“We’re calling MACS0416 the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, each as a result of it is so colourful and due to the flickering lights we discover inside it,” Yan stated. “We will see so many transients in sure areas of this space due to a phenomenon referred to as gravitational lensing, which is magnifying galaxies behind this cluster.”

The workforce found the transients by finding out 4 units of photos taken by JWST of the galaxy cluster over a interval of 126 days, or about 4 months. Yan is especially excited that two of the transients are supernovae—stars which might be on the finish of their lifespans—as a result of the workforce can use them to check the supernovae’s host galaxies.

“The 2 supernovae and the opposite twelve extraordinarily magnified stars are of various nature, however they’re all necessary,” Yan stated. “Now we have traced the change in brightness over time via their gentle curves, and by analyzing intimately how the sunshine modifications over time, we’ll finally have the ability to know what sort of stars they’re. Extra importantly, we’ll have the ability to perceive the detailed construction of the magnifying glass and the way it pertains to dark matter distribution. It is a utterly new view of the universe that is been opened by JWST.”

“JWST’s PEARLS: Transients in the MACS J0416.1-2403 Field” has not too long ago been accepted for publication within the Astrophysical Journal. It is presently accessible on the arXiv pre-print server.