Overview
- Indian researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar identified the galaxy, named Alaknanda, in JWST survey images boosted by gravitational lensing from the Abell 2744 cluster about 12 billion light-years away.
- Their peer-reviewed analysis in Astronomy & Astrophysics reports a roughly 30,000-light-year disk with two symmetric arms, a central bulge, and a stellar mass near 10 billion Suns.
- Measurements spanning 21 wavelengths place the system in the universe’s first 1.5 billion years and indicate an intense star-formation rate of about 60 Suns per year.
- The clear spiral morphology challenges expectations that early galaxies were predominantly clumpy and turbulent, prompting a reassessment of how quickly ordered disks can assemble.
- Researchers are preparing Webb motion-mapping and radio observations to measure rotation and turbulence and to distinguish steady disk growth from interaction-driven features.