In data obtained from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered an object that could be a galaxy formed just 90 million years after the Big Bang. If this discovery is confirmed, it would break the previous record for the oldest known galaxy by nearly 200 million years. However, scientists are approaching the finding with caution—the mysterious signal might have another, equally intriguing explanation.

How the Age of Galaxies Is Determined

The universe is constantly expanding, and the light from the most distant objects "stretches" as it travels toward Earth, shifting into the red part of the spectrum—a phenomenon known as redshift. The greater the redshift, the farther away the object is, and the deeper into the universe’s past astronomers can look. By measuring the redshift, researchers calculate the age and distance of distant objects.

Currently, the oldest confirmed galaxy is considered to be MoM-z14, discovered thanks to data from the James Webb Telescope. Its redshift is 14.44, which corresponds to the universe being only 280 million years old at the time this galaxy existed. However, this record may soon be surpassed by another object.

A New Discovery: The Mysterious Object Capotauro

An international team of astronomers led by Giovanni Gandolfi from the University of Padua (Italy) conducted a thorough analysis of sky images captured by the James Webb Telescope. Among millions of points in the images, the scientists noticed a tiny spot that, according to their estimates, could be a galaxy. Using various filters, the researchers analyzed the light distribution of this object across the spectrum and determined its redshift to be 32. This means we see the object as it was just 90 million years after the Big Bang. The potential galaxy was named Capotauro after a mountain in Italy and could be almost 200 million years older than MoM-z14.

If the calculations are correct, Capotauro would become the oldest known galaxy to date. Its existence coincides with the era when the first stars and black holes were forming.

Questions and Doubts Among Scientists

Such an extraordinary discovery requires exceptional evidence. Astronomers have raised serious questions: Capotauro appears too bright for its supposed age. Its luminosity is comparable to galaxies observed in later epochs, such as MoM-z14. Preliminary estimates suggest that Capotauro’s mass could exceed the Sun’s mass by a billion times.

Current theoretical models of galaxy formation do not explain how such a massive object could form in just 90 million years—a very short period by cosmic standards. For this to happen, nearly all the gas in the galaxy would have had to turn into stars, meaning the star formation efficiency would need to be close to 100 percent. In reality, this is impossible: typically, only 20–30% of the gas forms stars. Astronomers not involved in the discovery believe that the Gandolfi team’s data likely contains an error. If there is no mistake, then scientists are facing an anomaly that cannot yet be explained.

Alternative Hypotheses

There is another possible explanation. The mysterious signal might not come from a distant galaxy, but from an object within our own Milky Way. Gandolfi suggests that if the mass data is incorrect, the object could be a brown dwarf that happened to fall within the telescope’s field of view. Brown dwarfs are "failed" stars that lack the mass to ignite nuclear fusion. They are lighter than stars but heavier than gas giants like Jupiter.

“It’s possible that Capotauro is one of the first substellar objects ever formed in our galaxy. In that case, we’re dealing with a relatively cold and old cosmic body with a temperature comparable to room temperature. In other words, its properties could easily mislead us and make us mistake it for a distant galaxy,” Gandolfi explained.

What’s Next?

To uncover the truth, astronomers need additional observations. The James Webb Telescope is capable of analyzing light with much greater precision. Only then will it be possible to determine what exactly lies behind the bright spot—a record-breaking ancient galaxy or an unusual object within the Milky Way.

The results of the study have been published on the website of Cornell University’s electronic archive of scientific articles.