Astronomers have discovered what appear to be massive galaxies dating back 600 million years after the Big Bang.
And while the new “James Webb” space telescope monitored older galaxies, dating back 300 million years from the beginning of the universe, it was the size and maturity of these six huge galaxies that amazed scientists.
Principal investigator Ivo Lappi of the Australian University of Technology Swinburne and his team expected to find small galaxies close to the dawn of the universe (the supposed start date), and not these massive galaxies.
“While most galaxies in this age are still young and gradually expanding over time, there are a few that are maturing rapidly,” he said in an email to the Associated Press. “Why is this the case? … and how is that possible?” Why should he act like this? This is not known until now.”
“Each of the six masses weighs billions of times more than our Sun,” says the Associated Press.
The combined weight of all its stars may be up to 100 billion times more massive than our sun, according to the scientists, who published their findings in the scientific journal Nature.
Labbe said that he and his team did not believe the results were real at first, and that there could be no galaxies as mature as our Milky Way.
Those galaxies looked so big and bright that some team members thought they had made a mistake.
Commenting on this, Labi said, “We were stunned…we were suspicious.”
For his part, Joel Lega of Pennsylvania State University, who participated in the study, said: “The discovery that the formation of huge galaxies began very early in the history of the universe, is something that turns what many of us thought.”
Then he continued, “It turns out that we found something so unexpected that it creates problems for science, it calls into question the early formation of galaxies.”
These galaxy observations were among the first set of data to come from the Webb telescope, which was launched just over a year ago.
Webb is seen by NASA and the European Space Agency as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched 33 years ago.
But unlike Hubble, the larger Webb telescope can detect galaxies that have never been seen before.
Scientists now hope to eventually spot the first stars and galaxies that formed after the creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago.
The researchers are still awaiting official confirmation through deeper image analysis, and are keen to name these more massive galaxies for now.
Labbe said that while some may be smaller, “it will turn out that at least some of them are giant galaxies,” and then added, “Next year will definitely tell us something new.”
He added that one of the early lessons Webb now sends is “the need to let go of our expectations and prepare for the surprise.”