Webb Telescope Spots Mature Galaxies in the Early Universe
The Webb Space Telescope has spotted six pinpricks of reddish-orange light that scientists say are actually galaxies as mature as the Milky Way—despite being billions of years younger.The galaxies are seen as they looked about 500 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. The presence of galaxies so early in the universe is not surprising, but the degree to which the galaxies are developed is throwing astronomers for a loop. Analysis of the image data is published today in Nature.“These…