The galaxy, catalogued as SPT0418-47, is so removed that its light was more than 12 billion years to reach us. Now we see it for what it was when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years, which is 10% of its current age, said in a statement at the European southern Observatory (ESO), which participated the opening. At that time the galaxy was formed.
This “baby”, discovered a powerful network of radio telescopes ALMA, located in Northern Chile, suspiciously similar to our milky Way: the same high density of stars around the galactic center and the same rotating disk. A big surprise for astronomers who thought that such a structure can be formed 12 billion light-years ago. “For the first time the presence of the galactic center discovered in a young Universe that gives SPT0418-47 the status of the remote counterpart of the milky Way,” — said in ESO.
One big surprise: no sign of turbulence or instability in the galaxy, which seems surprisingly quiet. Perhaps contrary to modern concepts, the early universe was less chaotic soon after the Big Bang.