NASA releases new image from Webb telescope featuring oldest stars in the Milky Way

NASA has released a new image taken using the James Webb Space Telescope and it features some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The picture features the globular cluster M92 which lies 27,000 light-years away and was captured by the observatory's Near-infrared camera (NIRCam) instrument. Globular clusters are defined as the dense masses of tightly packed stars that formed around the same time. 

Gold stars for you! 🌟

Shown here is M92, a cluster of thousands of stars located 27,000 light-years away in our Milky Way. One of Webb’s first science observations, this was taken as part of a program designed to help scientists make the most of Webb: https://t.co/9CHqHtEZlz pic.twitter.com/QVhLIgV6HE

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) February 22, 2023

According to NASA, there are about 3,00,000 stars which are densely packed in this cluster spanning about 100 light-years across. Any planet existing in this star cluster would have their night sky shining thousands of times brighter than what is witnessed here on Earth. 

M92, a worthy target

Scientists says that M92 is a worthy target to study star formation, and this is why it was one of the James Webb telescope's first observations. The star cluster was observed by Webb on June 20, 2022 for a little over an hour when the telescope's instruments were being fine tuned for its mission. Capturing M92 was part of the Early Release Science (ERS) Program which was aimed at helping astronomers understand how to use Webb in the best way possible. 

"M92 is a classic globular cluster. It’s close by; we understand it relatively well; it’s one of our references in studies of stellar evolution and stellar systems," astronomer Alessandro Savino from the University of California said in an official statement. Moreover, astronomer Matteo Correnti from the Italian Space Agency says that M92 is "one of the oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way, if not the oldest one,'' as it is aged somewhere between 12 and 13 billion years old.