Astronomers discover extremely distant galaxy that looks 'surprisingly' like the Milky Way - Evening Standard

The galaxy, named SPT0418-47, looks as it was when the universe was just 1.4 billion years old.

According to the researchers, the findings suggest that this galaxy is "surprisingly unchaotic, contradicting theories that all galaxies in the early universe were turbulent and unstable".

"Despite forming stars at a high rate, and therefore being the site of highly energetic processes, SPT0418-47 is the most well-ordered galaxy disc ever observed in the early universe.

She added: “This result represents a breakthrough in the field of galaxy formation, showing that the structures that we observe in nearby spiral galaxies and in our Milky Way were already in place 12 billion years ago.”?

Although SPT0418-47 has features similar to the Milky Way, astronomers say they expect it to evolve into a galaxy very different from the one that contains the Solar System