James Webb Space Telescope spots a stunning 'cosmic jellyfish' solve the mysteries of galactic evolution (photo)

ESO 137-001 the "Cosmic Jellyfish" seen for the first time in stunning detail (Image credit: NASA/ESA)

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have captured a stunning image of a "cosmic jellyfish." This aquatic-creature-like galaxy, designated ESO 137-001, was seen as it existed 8.5 billion years ago, or around 5.3 billion years after the Big Bang. Astronomers say it could paint a more detailed picture of the evolution of galaxies at a crucial period in the adolescent universe.

ESO 137-001 is an example of a jellyfish galaxy, a class of galaxies that get their moniker from the fact that they possess trailing tendrils of gas that resemble the flexible, stinging appendages of their oceanic namesakes. For jellyfish galaxies, these trails are created as they 'swim' through their galaxy cluster homes against the flow of strong winds that push on them, forcing out gas, a process called "ram-stripping."

"We were looking through a large amount of data from this well-studied region in the sky with the hopes of spotting jellyfish galaxies that haven’t been studied before," team member Ian Roberts of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics in the Faculty of Science in the UK, said in a statement. "Early on in our search of the JWST data, we spotted a distant, undocumented jellyfish galaxy that sparked immediate interest."

A full view of ESO 137-001, the "Cosmic Jellyfish" as seen by the JWST (Image credit: NASA/ESA)

The JWST image of ESO 137-001 shows a galactic disk that appears relatively normal, not dissimilar from our own modern-day galaxy, barring the distinct gas trails. Bright blue "knots" can be seen in these tendrils that represent groupings of young stars.

The youth of these stellar bodies implies that they were born outside the main galactic disk of ESO 137-001 within these tendrils of ram-stripped gas. While this phenomenon is expected of jellyfish galaxies, the image of ESO 137-001 has delivered at least one surprise. Previously, researchers had thought that still-forming galaxy clusters that existed 8.5 billion years or so ago would not commonly produce the pressure that leads to ram-stripping.

"The first is that cluster environments were already harsh enough to strip galaxies, and the second is that galaxy clusters may strongly alter galaxy properties earlier than expected," Roberts explained. "Another is that all the challenges listed might have played a part in building the large population of dead galaxies we see in galaxy clusters today. This data provides us with rare insight into how galaxies were transformed in the early universe."

The team now intends to continue studying ESO 137-001 with the JWST, hoping to solve further mysteries regarding this and other jellyfish galaxies.

The team's results were published on Tuesday (Feb. 17) in The Astrophysical Journal.

Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.

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