The James Webb Space Telescope has identified a galaxy named Y1, whose light traveled more than 13 billion years before reaching Earth. Scientists estimate that Y1 formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang, a period in which, according to current models, objects this massive and bright should not exist.
Its remarkable mass and luminosity suggest that Y1 is a true “star factory,” producing stars at a rate 180 times higher than the Milky Way. In addition, studies using the ALMA radio telescope show that Y1’s stellar dust reaches temperatures of around 90 K, much hotter than expected for such ancient galaxies. This discovery challenges long-held theories about the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies.
Why is the discovery of this new galaxy so groundbreaking for astronomy?
Because it forces scientists to rethink current galaxy-formation models. Y1 demonstrates that extremely massive, fast-growing, and unusually hot galaxies could already exist in the early universe, a finding that contradicts many previous assumptions about how cosmic structures evolved.