James Webb telescope finds ancient galaxy larger than our Milky Way, and it's threatening to upend cosmology
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has found a galaxy in the early universe that's so massive, it shouldn't exist, posing a "significant challenge" to the standard model of cosmology, according to the study authors. The galaxy, called ZF-UDS-7329, contains more stars than the Milky Way , despite having formed only 800 million years into the universe's 13.8 billion-year life span. This means they were somehow born without dark matter seeding their formation, contrary to what the standard model of galaxy formation suggests. How this could have happened is unclear, but much like previous JWST discoveries of other inexplicably massive galaxies in the early universe , it threatens to upend our understanding of how the first matter in the universe formed. The researchers published their findings Feb. 14 in the journal Nature . Related: After 2 years in space, the James Webb telescope has broken cosmology. Can it be fixed? "Having these extremely massive ...