Six huge galaxies so massive that scientists say they should not be able to exist have been spotted by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope.
An international team of astrophysicists discovered the mysterious objects during a study at the University of Colorado Boulder in America.
Each may have existed at the dawn of the universe more than 13 billion years ago, about 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang, the team found.
They contain almost as many stars as the Milky Way.
“It’s bananas,” said Erica Nelson, co-author of the research and an assistant professor of astrophysics at the university.
“You just don’t expect the early universe to be able to organise itself that quickly. These galaxies should not have had time to form.”
The findings were published in the journal Nature on February 22.
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in December 2021, is the most powerful ever sent into space.
Its latest finds are not the earliest galaxies that have been observed.
In 2022, a team spotted four galaxies they said formed from gas about 350 million years after the Big Bang.
Those objects were tiny compared with the new galaxies.
Ms Nelson said it was possible the galaxies are “a different kind of weird object, such as faint quasars, which would be just as interesting”.
Ms Nelson and her colleagues from the US, Australia, Denmark and Spain formed a team to investigate data sent back to Earth by the telescope.
She was looking at a postage stamp-sized section of one image when she spotted “fuzzy dots” of light that she said looked too bright to be real.
“They were so red and so bright,” she said. “We weren’t expecting to see them.”
The team discovered that the old galaxies contained tens to hundreds of billions of sun-sized stars' worth of mass, similar to Earth’s own Milky Way galaxy, though the galaxies probably had little in common.
“The Milky Way forms about one to two new stars every year,” Ms Nelson said. “Some of these galaxies would have to be forming hundreds of new stars a year for the entire history of the universe.”
Calculations suggest there should not have been enough normal matter to form so many stars so quickly at the time.
“If even one of these galaxies is real, it will push against the limits of our understanding of cosmology,” she said.
What is the James Webb Space Telescope?
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest optical telescope in space, equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments to conduct infrared astronomy, allowing objects that were previously too old or far away to be seen.
Among its discoveries, an image beamed back to Earth from the telescope in January 2022 offered clues on how the first stars were born.
Astronomers believe the image shows a young cluster of stars more than 200,000 light years from Earth, in a dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, could help shed light on how the first stars formed during the “cosmic noon” period, about two or three billion years after the Big Bang.
That same month, it found an Earth-like exoplanet outside the solar system. The planet, called LHS 475 b, is almost exactly the same size as the Earth.
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Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare
Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
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