Astronomers spot oldest spiral galaxy yet
Due to the tumult of the early universe, it’s very rare to see neat, orderly galaxies (such as the Milky Way) in the distance (corresponding to the distant past). However, a group of researchers scanning through galaxies that were created just a few billion years after the Big Bang stumbled upon an exciting discovery: BX 442, a galaxy with a neat spiral that was created (just!) 3 billion years after the Big Bang. BX 442 may not always have been so orderly - instead, scientists think interactions with a nearby galaxy caused the fleeting spiral to appear, which may disappear in (only!) several hundred million years. This may explain why spirals in ancient galaxies are so rare. New telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope from NASA, may be able to probe more mechanisms for galaxy formation.
