“This groundbreaking discovery demonstrates, for the first time, that studying large numbers of individual stars in a distant galaxy is possible,” study co-author Fengwu Sun said in a statement from the Center for Astrophysics. “While previous studies with the Hubble Space Telescope found around seven stars, we now have the capability to resolve stars that were previously outside of our capability.” The stars themselves are also impressive. Many are red supergiants, like the star Betelgeuse in Earth’s galaxy. The galaxy they were found in was formed when the universe was about half its current age, the study said. Further observations of the galaxy might allow for studies of these types of stars, the researchers noted, which would allow scientists to learn more about the stars themselves and the way the universe was formed. “Importantly, observing more individual stars will also help us better understand dark matter in the lensing plane of these galaxies and stars, which we couldn’t do with only the handful of individual stars observed previously,” Sun said.
