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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Were Wrong for 60 Years: This Star Cluster Wasn’t a Cluster

For almost six decades, astronomers believed that Terzan 5 was a typical globular cluster — a tightly packed, spherical group of ancient stars formed together billions of years ago. But new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed that Terzan 5 is far more mysterious than scientists imagined.

A detailed study suggests that Terzan 5 is not a true globular cluster at all. Instead, it may be a rare surviving piece of cosmic history — a “living archaeological relic” that preserves clues about how the Milky Way itself was born and evolved.

The discovery, led by Giorgia Zullo from the University of Bologna and the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), challenges our understanding of these dense star systems. The research was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and provides the clearest evidence yet that Terzan 5 has a much more complex history than ordinary star clusters.

A Cosmic Mystery Hidden in the Heart of the Galaxy

Terzan 5 is located deep inside the galactic bulge — the crowded central region of the Milky Way where millions of stars are packed together. This region is extremely difficult to study because thick clouds of gas and dust block visible light, making distant objects appear hidden.

To overcome this challenge, researchers turned to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), one of the most powerful observatories ever built. Using its near-infrared camera, NIRCam, scientists captured extremely detailed images of Terzan 5, allowing them to study individual stars with unprecedented precision.

“The observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope have allowed us to obtain the sharpest view ever of this star system,” said Giorgia Zullo, lead author of the study.

The powerful infrared vision of Webb allowed researchers to look through the dust and uncover the true nature of this unusual object.

More Than One Generation of Stars

Traditional globular clusters have a simple history. Most of their stars formed around the same time, during a single burst of star formation billions of years ago. Because of this, globular clusters are usually made up of stars with nearly the same age and chemical composition.

But Terzan 5 does not follow this pattern.

The new analysis revealed that Terzan 5 contains at least four different generations of stars, born at very different times throughout the history of the universe.

Researchers identified an ancient population of stars that formed around 12.5 billion years ago — almost as old as the oldest stars in the Milky Way. These stars represent the earliest chapter of Terzan 5’s history.

However, scientists also discovered a much younger group of stars, around 4.7 billion years old, containing higher amounts of metals. In astronomy, “metals” refer to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which are created inside stars and spread through space over generations.

The presence of younger, metal-rich stars suggests that Terzan 5 continued forming new stars long after a typical globular cluster would have become inactive.

Scientists also found evidence of another generation of stars about 3.8 billion years old. Additionally, they detected a group of bright blue stars that indicate star formation may have continued until around 2.5 billion years ago.

This means Terzan 5 was not created in one short event. Instead, it experienced repeated episodes of star birth over billions of years.

A Fossil From the Milky Way’s Early Days

The unusual history of Terzan 5 suggests that it may not be a normal star cluster. Scientists believe it could be a leftover piece from the early formation of our galaxy.

“Multiple epochs of star formation separated by billions of years tell us that Terzan 5 is certainly not a globular cluster,” explained Francesco R. Ferraro, professor at the University of Bologna and principal investigator of the JWST observations.

Instead, its characteristics suggest that Terzan 5 may be a preserved fragment of the material that helped build the Milky Way.

When galaxies form, they grow through complicated processes involving gas clouds, star formation, and sometimes collisions with smaller galaxies or star systems. Objects like Terzan 5 may preserve information about those ancient events, acting like cosmic fossils.

By studying these objects, astronomers can look back billions of years and understand how galaxies were assembled.

Terzan 5 Is Not Alone

Scientists believe Terzan 5 may be part of a larger family of unusual star systems.

A similar object called Liller 1, also located near the center of the Milky Way, shows comparable characteristics. Like Terzan 5, Liller 1 was also previously classified as a globular cluster but appears to have a much more complicated history.

These discoveries suggest that some objects previously labeled as globular clusters may actually be something entirely different — ancient remnants of the processes that created galaxies.

Changing Our Understanding of Galaxy Formation

The discovery of Terzan 5 is important because it changes the way scientists think about the early Milky Way.

Instead of being a simple collection of old stars, Terzan 5 appears to be a record of billions of years of cosmic evolution. Each generation of stars inside it tells a different chapter of its past, from the earliest moments of the galaxy’s formation to much later periods of star creation.

The discovery is also one of the first major results from the Genesis project, a research effort supported by Italy’s Ministry of University and Research. The project aims to investigate these mysterious star systems and understand their role in galaxy evolution.

As astronomers continue studying Terzan 5 and similar objects, they may uncover more hidden pieces of the Milky Way’s history.

The universe has preserved ancient memories inside its stars, and with powerful tools like the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists are finally learning how to read them.

Reference: “ The multi-age stellar populations of Terzan 5 as revealed by JWST ” by G. Zullo, C. Pallanca, F.R. Ferraro, B. Lanzoni, L. Origlia, D. Massari, E. Dalessandro, C. Fanelli, M. Cadelano, E. Vesperini, C. Crociati, R.M. Rich and E. Valenti on Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2026. 

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