Ancient Galaxy Alaknanda Discovered: Milky Way-Like Spiral Formation Challenges Early Universe Theories

Dec 03, 2025 04:35 pm CST

Indian astronomers have discovered Alaknanda, a massive spiral galaxy with distinct arms similar to our Milky Way, but formed when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old. This breakthrough discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope, challenges scientific understanding of early galaxy formation and reveals that the universe was capable of developing complex galactic structures much earlier than previously thought.