When astronomers first turned on the James Webb Space Telescope
and pointed it out into the block of space,
one of the first images they got was this one.
It shows galaxies that are billions of years old,
those that were more or less formed at the dawn
of the universe itself.
Now experts say this one,
which they estimate is around 13 billion years old,
is a bit of an enigma,
as it shouldn't exist at all.
It's called ZF Dash UDS Dash 7329,
and astronomers say the Galaxy is too complex to have
been created in the early days after The Big Bang.
The issue is it's around the size of the Milky
Way,
but it also has around four times the number of
stars by mass.
The issue arises because our current dark matter model suggested
it was not in a state to support galaxies of
this size at that time as it was too smooth.
Those same models outlined that as time went on,
dark matter ripples grew because of gravity collecting in larger
clusters and dragging other elements,
namely hydrogen, together with it,
thus allowing it to create larger,
more complex galaxies. Another peculiarity about the Galaxy is that
it doesn't seem to have changed much after its creation.
The study's authors say this challenge is the standard model
of cosmology,
adding quote The key question now is how they form
so fast,
very early in the universe,
and what mysterious mechanisms lead to stopping them from forming
stars abruptly.
In the rest of the universe,
is doing so.