New galaxy James Webb
The scientists used the world’s most expensive telescope to reveal the properties of GS-9209 for the first time (Picture: GBrammer/CWilliams/ACarnall/SWNS /PA)

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has once again made a massive discovery, a densely packed galaxy 25million light-years away.

Known as GS-9209, the galaxy formed around 600 to 800million years after the Big Bang, and is the earliest of its kind found to date, researchers say.

The scientists, led by University of Edinburgh experts, used the world’s most expensive telescope to reveal the properties of GS-9209 for the first time.

Lead researcher Dr Adam Carnall, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: ‘The James Webb Space Telescope has already demonstrated that galaxies were growing larger and earlier than we ever suspected during the first billion years of cosmic history.

‘This work gives us our first really detailed look at the properties of these early galaxies, charting in detail the history of GS-9209, which managed to form as many stars as our own Milky Way in just 800million years after the Big Bang.

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 22 May 2023 16:00 The new galaxy known as GS-9209 spotted on the James Webb Space Telescope. See SWNS story SWMRstar. A new galaxy 25 billion light years away has been found using the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy ? known as GS-9209 ? formed 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang, and is the earliest found to date, researchers say. Astronomers from the University of Edinburgh used the most powerful telescope ever built and found the galaxy. Despite being around ten times smaller than the Milky Way, GS-9209 has a similar number of stars, with a combined mass around 40 billion times that of our Sun, and were formed rapidly before star formation in GS-9209 stopped.
Known as GS-9209, the galaxy formed around 600 to 800million years after the Big Bang, and is the earliest of its kind found to date, researchers say (Picture: GBrammer/CWilliams/ACarnall/SWNS)

‘The fact that we also see a very massive black hole in this galaxy was a big surprise, and lends a lot of weight to the idea that these black holes are what shut down star formation in early galaxies.’

The researchers found that despite being around 10 times smaller than the Milky Way, GS-9209 has a similar number of stars to our own galaxy.

According to the study published in the journal Nature, their combined mass is around 40 billion times that of our sun, and they were formed rapidly before star formation in GS-9209 stopped.

GS-9209 is the earliest known example of a galaxy no longer forming stars – known as a quiescent galaxy.

When the researchers observed it at 1.25billion years after the Big Bang, no stars had formed in the galaxy for about half a billion years.

The study also suggests there is a supermassive black hole at the centre of GS-9209. It is five times bigger than astronomers might anticipate in a galaxy with this number of stars.

Undated handout photo issued by NASA of a James Webb Space Telescope. Four galaxies that existed more than 13 billion years ago have been identified and confirmed by scientists as the earliest known to date. These galaxies were present around 350 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was just 2% of its current age. Issue date: Friday December 9, 2022. PA Photo. The confirmation comes from the data taken from Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is the largest and the most powerful telescope ever built. See PA story SCIENCE Galaxy. Photo credit should read: Nasa/ESA/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
The $9 billion James Webb infrared telescope was launched into space on Christmas day in 2021 (Picture: PA)

The discovery could explain why GS-9209 stopped forming new stars, the astronomers say.

When supermassive black holes grow they release huge amounts of high-energy radiation, which can heat up and push gas out of galaxies.

According to the researchers, this could have caused star formation in GS-9209 to stop, as stars form when clouds of dust and gas particles inside galaxies collapse under their own weight.

GS-9209 was first discovered in 2004 by Edinburgh PhD student Karina Caputi, who was supervised at the time by professors Jim Dunlop and Ross McLure at the university’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

The $9billion James Webb telescope was launched into space on Christmas day in 2021.

It is expected to revolutionize astronomy by allowing scientists to peer farther than before and with greater precision into the cosmos, to the dawn of the known universe.

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