James Webb Space Telescope

Galaxies shockingly similar to our own appear to have been found near the beginning of the universe.

The discovery was made by scientists using Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is able to look deep into the history of the cosmos.

As scientists did, they found galaxies with “stellar bars”. Those are long features of stars that reach from the middle of galaxies out into their furthest discs.

Those galaxies were around when the universe was just 25 per cent of its current age, the researchers said.

Such barred galaxies have been seen before, in our own Milky Way. But seeing them this early on in the development of the cosmos will need a rewriting of our galaxies of how galaxies evolve.

The extra detail of the JWST appears to have been the breakthrough required to see early galaxies in enough detail to detect those bars.

Previous observations by the Hubble Space Telescope showed the galaxy EGS-23205 to be an intriguing smudge – but new images from JWST show it as a precise swirl with extending bars……..

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/galaxy-milky-way-universe-jwst-nasa-b2256757.html