Mar 11, 2023 5 min read

How old is our universe? | An Analysis of Pandora's Cluster

An image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope of galaxy cluster Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, which was released to the public on February 15, 2023. This image is truly a combination of four Webb snapshots stitched together into one panoramic image with a resolution of 17,644 x 13,422 pixels. You can see the image in all of its glory in this zoomable image.

In Greek mythology, the first woman, Pandora, is well known for allowing her curiosity to get the best of her and opening a box left in her care. This box, known as Pandora's Box, is said to have then released all manner of misery and evil out over the Earth. Pandora quickly closed the lid and it is said that only Hope remained inside (Britannica). In 2011, a team of scientist using the Hubble Space Telescope studied a simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate galaxy clusters that would be known as Abell 2744, or colloquially as Pandora's Cluster (Information@eso.org, 2011). This cluster of galaxies would allow astronomers a lens into deep space, an ability to view galaxies from a time near The Big Bang that would be impossible to view without the gravitational lensing caused by these galaxies. With better technology and further analysis, there was a hope that the potential discoveries hidden behind this cluster could provide astronomers with a greater understanding of the birth of galaxies, likened to the Hope that remained in Pandora's Box so long ago.

What is gravitational lensing?

The James Webb Space Telescope YouTube channel has a wonderful 2 minute video explaining the concept of gravitational lensing. I considered summarizing the video into words here, but it would never match the quality of this quick video.

Out with the Hubble in with James Webb

After decades of planning and development, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) officially launched from Earth on Dec. 25th, 2021. The James Webb would be the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope that has been in function since Apr. 24th, 1990. After nearly three decades of service, the Hubble will pass the torch to the new state of the art $9.7 billion JWST (Davis). Part of the budget must have included this fascinating website I found while doing my research for this article that I must share. NASA is hosting a website that allows you to see exactly where the JWST is in space, including temperature readings on the telescope. On this website you can see a 3D rendering of our solar system with the location of not only the JWST, but every planet, comet, and spacecraft launched by NASA.

The JWST's advanced capabilities allowed for a deeper analysis of Pandora's Cluster. The telescope would capture the cluster for 4-6 hours, for a total of 30 hours of observing time, to create the image you see at the top of the page. As pretty as the image looks with the naked eye, it becomes truly impressive when you have a better understanding for what the JWST captured.

Annotating Pandora's Cluster

An annotated version of Pandora's Cluster. Feel free to take a gander/follow along for yourself by clicking this link.

The bright star circled in orange is a foreground star in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Each of the red circles highlights the massive galaxy clusters that are allowing for the gravitational lensing to occur. Among the clusters, you will see red and orange arced lines. These are representative of light bending from far away galaxies, that would previously be impossible to see with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Most interestingly to me, and the main reason I took on the endeavor of writing this article, is the possibility of galaxies existing before The Big Bang. To avoid unnecessary details, The Big Bang is a theory proposed by scientist based off of Einstein's general theory of relativity along with standard theories of fundamental principles that proposes the beginning state of our universe ("The Big Bang"). Within the great image of Pandora's Cluster, there are certain points that are unable to be characterized so easily as others. In other words, astronomers do not fully understand what they are looking at. As the following point I want to highlight is so tiny in the full resolution image, I have zoomed into the cluster of galaxies to the left of the orange-circled star to get a better view.

A zoomed in image of Pandora's Cluster, more specifically of the leftmost galaxy cluster.

That tiny red dot you may still be struggling to see in the middle of the red circle is the cause of much mystery amongst astronomers. The dot is an extremely compact source of infrared light as it does not seem to be warped by the gravitational lensing from the galaxy cluster. American astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, explains that this tiny source of infrared light is likely a massive source of ultraviolet light from a time near the beginning of our universe. Tyson goes onto explain that when galaxies are just born they give off intense amounts of ultraviolet light. According to American theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, the JWST has captured a galaxy that exists half a billon years after The Big Bang that is up to 10 times bigger than our current Milky Way Galaxy, which should not happen. Either that or the little dot is a massive black hole that would require new laws of physics to fully understand.

I wrote this article as an attempt to capture a moment in history of much excitement. Following this initial capture of Pandora's Cluster the JWST will be able to focus more specifically on areas of interest and we will be able to know, for certain, many details that are currently unknown. But until then, we are able to wonder more deeply as to what is out there? Did a universe exist before The Big Bang? What caused The Big Bang? If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into? All these questions are better answered while staring into a starry night, entertaining even the wildest of possibilities as you attempt to pioneer an understanding of our universe.

May these findings be as interesting to you as they seem to me. For more incredible images from the James Webb Space Telescope click HERE.

References

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Pandora". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pandora-Greek-mythology.

Davis, Jason. “JWST versus Hubble: How Are They Different?” The Planetary Society, 11 July 2022, https://www.planetary.org/articles/jwst-versus-hubble?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6rCgBhDVARIsAK1kGPJOJDBNMkNf3Xlc7Eon9mwdOp68Ysbn0Qn2ZTmmBcKnPCJheINqdwMaAjbWEALw_wcB.

Information@eso.org. “Pandora's Cluster - A Galactic Crash Investigation.” Www.spacetelescope.org, 22 June 2011, https://esahubble.org/news/heic1111/.

"Michio Kaku - JWST Shatters Understanding of the Age of the Universe." YouTube, uploaded by Cuckoo for Kaku, 25 Feb. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN0vCyln2PQ.

“The Big Bang.” NASA Science, NASA, science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang.

"What's Up With The New JWST Findings? With Neil DeGrasse Tyson." YouTube, uploaded by StarTalk, 3 Mar. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjgFR33-v-I.