Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted a rare galaxy at the dawn of time that may be a "missing link" between the oldest generation of stars and the ones we see near Earth.

The James Webb Telescope has detected GS-NDG-9422, a galaxy that existed 1 billion years after the Big Bang. Its exceptional brightness is attributed to space gas heated by extremely hot, massive stars. This finding could provide insights into an unknown phase of galaxy evolution and the transition from primordial stars to familiar galaxies.

Webb has been able to observe some of the oldest, faintest light in existence, including this strange galaxy, GS-NDG-9422, as it existed 1 billion years after the Big Bang. For perspective, the universe’s age is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 13.8 billion years.

A new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows Arp 107, home to two merging galaxies, with two bright cores and a "bridge" of dust and gas forming a cosmic smiley face.

The galactic duo lies about 465 million light-years from Earth. The post James Webb Space Telescope captures ‘cosmic smile’ of galaxies colliding appeared first on Talker.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Two galaxies are converging in the constellation Leo Minor, and based on a new image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, they're pretty pleased with their merger-in-progress.