For the first time, massive stars have been discovered in a distant region of the universe (photo).

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful observatory in space, has captured a unique image that helped identify 44 individual stars in a galaxy located 6.5 billion light-years away from us. This is the largest number of individual stars ever detected in such a distant part of the Universe. The study has been published in the journal Nature Astronomy, reports Forbes.

Astronomers utilized the Webb telescope to obtain a unique image of a distant galaxy, named the "Dragon Arc" due to its shape. In reality, this galaxy appears different, but the gravity of the Abell 370 galaxy cluster distorted the light from this object, making it appear arc-like.

Within this galaxy, astronomers discovered a total of 44 new individual stars, setting an absolute record for such observations. Until now, scientists had never been able to see dozens of individual stars in such a remote part of the Universe.

The discovery of new stars was made possible through a method known as gravitational lensing. When light from very distant galaxies passes through a closer galaxy cluster, the gravity of the latter significantly distorts this light. As a result, distant galaxies may appear as rings or arcs. Simply put, gravitational lensing is akin to astronomers using a giant magnifying glass to view a very distant galaxy. In this case, the gravity of Abell 370 not only distorted the light of the "Dragon Arc" but also amplified it, making it visible.

Most importantly, astronomers were able to distinguish the light from 44 individual stars in a distant part of the Universe. Previously, with the Hubble Space Telescope, they managed to see a maximum of 7 individual stars in a distant galaxy.

Seeing individual stars billions of light-years away is a very challenging task, as they typically appear as blurred spots and are hard to distinguish from one another.

Astronomers found that most of the discovered stars are red supergiants, similar to the star Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation. These stars are at the final stage of their lives and are expected to explode as supernovae.

According to the study's authors, this discovery demonstrates that detecting and studying a large number of individual stars is indeed possible.

The historic finding by the Webb telescope will also allow astronomers to continue exploring one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe, namely dark matter. Scientists state that observing a greater number of individual stars will help better understand the nature of dark matter in the lensing plane of distant galaxies.

Dark matter is what astronomers refer to as an invisible form of matter that helps galaxies grow and evolve. It is believed that dark matter constitutes about 85% of all matter in the Universe.