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James Webb Telescope Reveals Most Distant Milky Way-Like Galaxy, Zhúlóng

The discovery of Zhúlóng, an ultra-massive spiral galaxy from just one billion years after the Big Bang, challenges long-standing galaxy formation theories.

Image
With its spiral arms and large star-forming disc, Zhúlóng resembles the Milky Way. NASA/CSA/ESA, M. Xiao (University of Geneva), G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute), Dawn JWST Archive
This image of Zhúlóng, the most distant spiral galaxy discovered to date, shows its remarkably well-defined spiral arms, a central old bulge, and a large star-forming disk, resembling the structure of the Milky Way. Image credit: NASA / CSA / ESA / M. Xiao, University of Geneva / G. Brammer, Niels Bohr Institute / Dawn JWST Archive.

Overview

  • Zhúlóng, observed at redshift 5.2, is the most distant spiral galaxy resembling the Milky Way, formed just one billion years after the Big Bang.
  • The galaxy features a mature structure with a central old bulge, a 60,000-light-year-wide star-forming disk, and defined spiral arms.
  • Its discovery was made through JWST's PANORAMIC pure parallel survey, designed to efficiently map the distant Universe and uncover rare massive galaxies.
  • With a stellar mass exceeding 100 billion solar masses, Zhúlóng demonstrates that massive, well-ordered spiral galaxies can form far earlier than previously thought.
  • Follow-up observations with JWST and ALMA are planned to further study Zhúlóng’s properties and formation, with wide-area surveys expected to uncover more such galaxies.