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Images from Hubble's ACS Tell a Tale of Two Record-Breaking Galaxy Clusters


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Looking back in time nearly 9 billion years, an international team of astronomers found mature galaxies in a young universe. The galaxies are members of a cluster of galaxies that existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. This compelling evidence that galaxies must have started forming just after the big bang was bolstered by observations made by the same team of astronomers when they peered even farther back in time. The team found embryonic galaxies a mere 1.5 billion years after the birth of the cosmos. The "baby galaxies" reside in a still-developing cluster, the most distant proto-cluster ever found.

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      Last Updated Jun 20, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
      Hubble Space Telescope Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Irregular Galaxies The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
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