Uncovering the Origins of a Massive Galaxy Cluster in the Early Universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed a protocluster of seven galaxies at a distance of redshift 7.9, or 650 million years after the big bang. The galaxies are moving at high velocities within a halo of dark matter, and the data collected by Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph allowed astronomers to model and map the future development of the gathering group, predicting that it will eventually resemble the Coma Cluster. The research team anticipates that future collaboration between Webb and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will yield even more results on early galaxy clusters.