News Astronomy

The most distant rotating galaxy hails from 13.3 billion years ago

The galaxy started spinning just 500 million years after the Big Bang

Hubble image of a cluster of galaxies with an inset image of galaxy MACS1149-JD1

A galaxy about 13.3 billion light-years away (inset in this image of a galaxy cluster from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) is the most distant galaxy to show signs of rotation.

ALMA/ESO, NAOJ and NRAO; NASA, ESA Hubble Space Telescope; W. Zheng/JHU, M. Postman/STScI; the CLASH Team; T. Hasimoto et al/Nature 2018

By Lisa Grossman

- More than 2 years ago

There is a galaxy spinning like a record in the early universe — far earlier than any others have been seen twirling around.