The current theory suggests that galaxies began as small clouds of stars and dust that grew over time. The galaxies are so massive that they conflict with 99% of models representing early galaxies in the universe, which means scientists need to rethink how galaxies formed and evolved. “We’ve been informally calling these objects ‘universe breakers’ - and they have been living up to their name so far.” “The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” Leja said. Webb telescope sees once invisible structures inside spiral galaxies In this image of NGC 7496, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb's MIRI data at 7.7, 10 and 11.3, and 21 microns (F770W, F1000W and F1130W, and F2100W, respectively).Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. These filaments and hollow cavities are evidence of young stars releasing energy and, in some cases, blowing out the gas and dust of the interstellar medium surrounding them. The spiral arms of NGC 7496 are filled with cavernous bubbles and shells overlapping one another in this image from MIRI. (Scientists have determined the universe is about 13.7 billion years old.) By peering into the distant universe, the observatory can essentially see back in time up to about 13.5 billion years ago. The telescope observes the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, and is capable of detecting the faint light from ancient stars and galaxies. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.” “These objects are way more massive than anyone expected,” said study coauthor Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, in a statement. The discovery is completely upending existing theories about the origins of galaxies, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The space observatory revealed six massive galaxies that existed between 500 million and 700 million years after the big bang that created the universe. Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time to the early days of the universe - and they spotted something unexpected.
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