The six mega-galaxies labelled "monsters" have stunned scientists
Six massive ancient galaxies, which astronomers are calling ''universe breakers'', have been discovered, CNN reported. The galaxies, detected by the James Webb telescope, are believed to date back to around 600 million years of the Big Bang. They are also said to weigh a billion times more than the Sun.
In a paper published in the scientific journal Nature, the team said these galaxies are far larger and more developed than what would be expected in the early days of the universe. The size and maturity of these six mega-galaxies labelled “monsters” have stunned scientists. They initially thought they had made “some kind of mistake” when they first stumbled across them.
''These objects are way more massive than anyone expected. We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we've discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe,'' study coauthor Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, said in a statement.
''The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science. We've been informally calling these objects ‘universe breakers' — and they have been living up to their name so far,'' Mr Leja added.
Astronomers say that the discovery could shake up our understanding of how galaxies formed at the very beginning of the universe.
Lead researcher Ivo Labbe, from Australia's Swinburne University of Technology, said, ''While most galaxies in this era are still small and only gradually growing larger over time, there are a few monsters that fast-track to maturity. Why this is the case or how this would work is unknown. We were mind-blown, kind of incredulous.''
The research team is still waiting for official confirmation of the galaxies through sensitive spectroscopy. Mr Leja said it's possible that a few of the objects might not be galaxies, but obscured supermassive black holes.