Ground-based follow-up observations proved inadequate, however, and astronomers had to wait until the James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> (JWST) came online to take a spectrum of it.<\/p> When we look at the night sky, we’re looking back in time<\/a>, since light from distant objects in the Universe takes a long time to reach us.<\/p> Galaxy JWST 7329 is so far away that we are seeing it as it was 11.5 billion years ago, just two billion years after the Big Bang<\/a>.<\/p> Even at this tender age, the galaxy already has a stellar population that\u2019s around 1.5 billion years old and has four times as many stars by mass as the Milky Way does today.<\/p> On top of this, the galaxy appears to have been quenched \u2013 meaning it has lost its cold gas, supressing star formation \u2013 for at least a billion years.\u00a0<\/p> Several similar star-filled youngsters have been discovered in recent years, though JWST 7329 is the most extreme example uncovered so far.<\/p> Their existence is causing issues for cosmologists, as galaxies are thought to grow from structures known as dark matter<\/a> haloes.<\/p> According to current theories, these structures shouldn\u2019t have had enough time to grow to the size needed to create such massive galaxies so early in the Universe.<\/p> “Having these extremely massive galaxies so early in the Universe is posing significant challenges to our standard model of cosmology,” says Claudia Lagos from the University of Western Australia<\/a>, who worked on the study.<\/p> “More observations are needed to understand how common these galaxies may be and to help us understand how truly massive these galaxies are.”<\/p> “JWST has been finding increasing evidence for massive galaxies forming early in time,” says Karl Glazebrook from Swinburne University, who led the study.<\/p> “This result sets a new record for this phenomenon. Although it is very striking, it is only one object. But we hope to find more; and if we do this will really upset our ideas of galaxy formation.”<\/p> When it was revealed in 1997, the Hubble Deep Field instantly became an iconic image, transforming an apparently empty patch of sky to one alive with galaxies<\/a>.<\/p> Yet it nearly didn\u2019t happen. Having assumed that early galaxies would look and behave like those in the present day, astronomers predicted it would be a waste of time.<\/p> Now, discoveries like this one are teaching us the same lesson again.<\/p> The very early Universe is different from what we expected.<\/p> Maybe there\u2019s something fundamentally wrong with our cosmology.<\/p> Maybe these galaxies are living their lives in an unexpected way.<\/p> Perhaps they\u2019re forming different kinds of stars. We\u2019ll find out more soon. Doesn\u2019t everyone love to be surprised?<\/p>Looking back in time<\/strong><\/h2>
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Why observing the early Universe is so important<\/strong><\/h2>
![\"Galaxies](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/03\/hubble-deep-field-993x1024.jpg?fit=800%2C825\")
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