---
title: UMD Astronomers Help Discover a First for the Early Universe
date: 2024-06-28T00:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/umd-astronomers-help-discover-a-first-for-the-early-universe"
section: Articles
---
# UMD Astronomers Help Discover a First for the Early Universe

*June 28, 2024* — by [Emily C. Nunez](/author/emily-c-nunez)


> Birth of Star Clusters in Nascent Galaxy Helped Transform the Cosmos

*Galaxy cluster SPT CL J0615 5746 1920x1080 — Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers including UMD researchers discovered five young massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc, a galaxy 13 billion light years away.*

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of scientists including two University of Maryland astronomers revealed the birth of five massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gems arc, a galaxy that formed less than 500 million years after the Big Bang.

[The findings](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07703-7), published this week in the journal *Nature*, mark the first discovery of so-called compact star clusters—extremely dense groups of stars bound by gravity—in an infant galaxy.

Though the light from this galaxy has been traveling for nearly 13 billion years across vast distances to reach Earth, the Webb telescope was able to see the Cosmic Gems arc in high resolution due to a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. When gravity bends light, it can “act as a telescope, magnifying anything behind it,” and the galaxy just happens to be situated behind one of these natural lenses, explained study co-author and UMD astronomy Professor Massimo Ricotti.


*annotated star clusters: lensed galaxy redshift (z): 2.6. lensed galaxy redshift (z): 10.2. mirrored star clusters redshift (z): 10.2.foreground galaxy cluster redshift (z): 0.97 — A field of many galaxies is pictured on the right, while the left panel shows two distinct galaxies, including the Cosmic Gems arc.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Astronomy](https://today.umd.edu/topic/astronomy), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)