Astronomers in India have identified a remarkably mature galaxy from the universe’s early history, one that mirrors the Milky Way so closely that it is now considered one of the most significant detections yet made with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The galaxy, which they named Alaknanda, displays a spiral structure so clear and symmetrical that it challenges long-held assumptions about how quickly ordered galaxies could have formed after the Big Bang.
The finding was made by Rashi Jain and Professor Yogesh Wadadekar at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR) in Pune.