Webb Finds 104 Stellar Events in Dragon Galaxy
The detection more than doubles the previous record of 44 magnified stellar events seen in a single galaxy.
Updated on Nov. 10, 2026 in Space
The James Webb Space Telescope has identified 104 magnified stellar-event candidates in the Dragon, an elongated galaxy about 6.5 billion light-years away. The count more than doubles the previous record of 44 detections, according to a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Why it matters
The finding gives astronomers the largest sample yet of highly magnified stars in a single galaxy, offering a new way to study stellar populations at great distances. It also shows how gravitational lensing by a galaxy cluster can reveal individual stars that would otherwise be far too faint to see.
The Dragon's blue-to-red supergiant ratio is 1, and 44 individual stars were identified within it in 2025 using gravitational lensing. The study does not specify how many of the 104 candidates will be confirmed as individual stars.
The players
James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's flagship infrared observatory, launched in 2021, which is designed to observe distant galaxies and stars with high sensitivity.
Astronomy & Astrophysics
A peer-reviewed European journal that publishes research across astronomy, astrophysics, and related fields.
The details
Light from the Dragon is magnified by the galaxy cluster Abell 370, which sits about 4 billion light-years away and stretches the Dragon into an elongated arc. Researchers looked for significant changes in brightness in JWST images, since a macrolens magnification can line up with an individual star's magnification over a few days to a week.
Timeline
2025: Researchers identified 44 individual stars within the Dragon using gravitational lensing.
November 9, 2026: The study on the 104 magnified stellar-event candidates was published.
The Big Picture
The 104 candidates extend the 2025 identification of 44 individual stars in the Dragon using gravitational lensing, building on a method that lets Webb resolve stars at distances that would otherwise be out of reach. The jump from 44 to 104 suggests the technique can scale to larger samples, though the study's stellar-event candidates still need confirmation.
The method could lead to a much larger catalog of individually detected stars in distant galaxies, which may help astronomers test models of stellar populations. Confirmation of the candidates will determine how useful the approach is for future studies of galaxy evolution.
The takeaway
Gravitational lensing is turning Webb into a tool for counting individual stars far beyond the Milky Way. Readers following space science can watch whether the 104 candidates hold up under follow-up observations.
Further reading
Explore more on Space to see how telescopes like Webb are changing our view of distant galaxies.
