Before the work of the James Webb Observatory, it was thought that there were very few disk galaxies in this part of the Universe that were less than 6 billion years old, as evidenced by observations with the Hubble telescope. Webb changed this view by discovering disk galaxies almost before the birth of the Universe, which forced scientists to rewrite theories about the evolution of stars and galaxies. and the entire universe. Webb’s first five observations revealed the existence of a larger scale than what Hubble had discovered, such as our Milky Way. Disk galaxies in all their diversity are considered established formations, while in the early Universe crowded conditions and frequent intergalactic collisions would have causing consequences and giving rise to strange galaxy formations. Instead of widespread chaos, Webb discovered a large number of disk galaxies in the early Universe, down to its earliest stages of development. Examples of disk galaxies discovered by Webb in the early Universe. Image source: University of Manchester

Christopher Conselice, professor of extragalactic astronomy at the University of Manchester, said: “Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we think that disk galaxies will be virtually non-existent until the Universe is six billion years old. The new JWST results push back the formation of these Milky Way-like galaxies to roughly the beginning of the universe. More and more data are available on early galaxies, and new work recently published in the Astrophysical Journal adds to a series of observations of disk galaxies between 3 and 6 billion years old. after the Big Bang. According to the researchers, this is another sign that the Universe’s galactic structure is forming much faster than expected. This same observation forces us to take a new look at the role and properties of dark matter, which is considered the glue that holds together stars and matter in the galactic structure. It’s time to rewrite theories about the evolution of the Universe, the study authors summarize.

source: https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/astronomers-find-abundance-of-milky-way-like-galaxies-in-early-universe-rewriting-cosmic-evolution-theories/