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TheJames Webb Space Telescope(JWST ) has found a galaxy in the former universe that ’s so monolithic , it should n’t survive , put a " pregnant challenge " to the standard model of cosmology , according to the discipline author .

The coltsfoot , called ZF - UDS-7329 , contains more stars than theMilky Way , despite having formed only 800 million years into the existence ’s 13.8 billion - twelvemonth biography span . This intend they were somehow bear withoutdark matterseeding their formation , adverse to what the standard model of extragalactic nebula formation suggests .

JWST-7329: a rare massive galaxy that formed very early in the Universe.

JWST-7329: a rare massive galaxy that formed very early in the Universe.

How this could have happened is unclear , but much like previous JWST uncovering ofother inexplicably massive wandflower in the former universe , it threatens to upend our savvy of how the first matter in the universe of discourse imprint , or maybe even the received model of cosmology itself . The researchers publish their findings Feb. 14 in the journalNature .

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" Having these super massive galaxy so early in the universe is posing significant challenge to our standard model of cosmogeny , " cogitation Centennial State - authorClaudia Lagos , an associate prof of astronomy at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research , said in a statement . This is because monolithic dark topic bodily structure , which are thought to be necessary components for hold former galaxies together , did not yet have time to form this early in the universe , Lagos added .

a photo of a very large orange galaxy next to other smaller galaxies

Light travels at a fixed speed through the vacuum of space , so the deeper we look into the universe , the more remote spark we intercept and the further back in prison term we see . This is what enabled the researchers to use JWST to spot ZF - UDS-7329 roughly 11.5 billion years in the past .

By studying the spectrum of Inner Light coming from the stars of this extremely distant beetleweed , the research worker found that the star were brook 1.5 billion years prior to that observation , or roughly 13 billion yr ago .

Astronomers are n’t certain when the very first globules of stars began to constellate into the galaxies we see today , but cosmologists previously estimated that the cognitive operation begin tardily within the first few hundred million years after theBig Bang .

An image of a distant galaxy with a zoomed-in inset

Current theories suggest that halos of moody subject ( a occult and unseeable substance believed to make up 25 % of the present world ) combined with gas to form the first seedlings of galaxies . After 1 billion to 2 billion years of the universe ’s life , the early protogalaxies then reached adolescence , forming into dwarf galaxies that begin raven one another to farm into ones like our own .

But the new discovery has confounded this scene : Not only did the galaxy crystallize without enough build up dark matter to sow it , but not long after a sudden burst of star formation , the wandflower short became quiescent — stand for its star geological formation ceased .

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The RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 spectra is laid over an image of space. The galaxy itself looks like a blurred red dot in this view.

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" This push the bound of our current understanding of how galaxies form and develop , " field co - authorThemiya Nanayakkara , an astronomer at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia , said in the statement . " The fundamental question now is how they form so tight very early in the universe , and what mysterious mechanics lead to stopping them forming stars abruptly when the rest of the universe is doing so . "

A photo of distant stars and galaxies, with an inset showing a galaxy similar to the Milky Way

The researchers ' next steps will be to research for more galaxies like this . If they find out any , it could seriously negate anterior ideas of how galaxies formed , they pronounce .

JADES-GS-z14-0 appearing as a miniscule dot in the Fornax constellation.

a deep field image of thousands of galaxies

An illustration of lightning striking in spake

an illustration of outer space with stars whizzing by

an illustration of the Milky Way in the center of a blue cloud of gas

An artist�s interpretation of a white dwarf exploding while matter from another white dwarf falls onto it

On the left is part of a new half-sky image in which three wavelengths of light have been combined to highlight the Milky Way (purple) and cosmic microwave background (gray). On the right, a closeup of the Orion Nebula.

A false-color image taken with MegaCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) as part of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS) shows a zoomed-in view of the newly discovered Andromeda XXXV satellite galaxy. A white ellipse, that measures about 1,000 light-years across its longest axis, shows the extent of the galaxy. Within the ellipse�s boundary is a cluster of mostly dim stars, ranging in hues from bright blues to warm yellows.

Diagram of the mud waves found in the sediment.

an illustration of a base on the moon

An aerial photo of mountains rising out of Antarctica snowy and icy landscape, as seen from NASA�s Operation IceBridge research aircraft.

A tree is silhouetted against the full completed Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14, 2023 in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Screen-capture of a home security camera facing a front porch during an earthquake.

An active fumerole in Iceland spews hydrogen sulfide gas.

A woman exercising on a rowing machine while observing her workout stats on an adjacent monitor