James Webb Telescope Discovers Earliest Galaxy Yet, Dating to 280 Million Years After Big Bang
WASHINGTON (AP) — The James Webb Space Telescope has detected MoM-z14, the most distant galaxy observed to date, with light emitted just 280 million years after the Big Bang, NASA announced Tuesday. The discovery, confirmed through peer-reviewed research published this month, surpasses previous records and stems from observations by the telescope orbiting 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
The finding challenges existing theories on galaxy formation, as MoM-z14 appears more luminous and massive than models predicted for such an early epoch, according to the study led by Rohan Naidu at MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Researchers used the telescope's Near-Infrared Camera and spectrographs to confirm the galaxy's redshift, enabling detection of infrared light shifted from its original wavelengths due to the universe's expansion.
The study appeared in the Open Journal of Astrophysics in January 2026, following an initial preprint on arXiv dated May 23, 2025. NASA issued a statement on Jan. 28, 2026, highlighting the milestone. "With Webb, we are able to see farther than humans ever have before, and it looks nothing like what we predicted, which is both challenging and exciting," Naidu said in the NASA statement.
MoM-z14 breaks the record set by JADES-GS-z14-0, a galaxy observed at about 300 million years post-Big Bang, which JWST identified in 2024, according to researchers from the JADES team at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Center for Astrophysics. That prior discovery, led by Brant Robertson and Ben Johnson, also relied on JWST's infrared capabilities and was announced in June 2024.
JWST has revealed an unexpectedly high number of bright galaxies in the universe's first 500 million years, a period known as cosmic dawn, the study authors said. This era marks the formation of the first stars and galaxies, following the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. "This unexpected population has electrified the community and raised fundamental questions about galaxy formation in the first 500 [million years after the Big Bang]," the study stated.
The telescope, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, launched on Dec. 25, 2021, and began operations in 2022. It orbits at the Sun-Earth L2 point, allowing uninterrupted observations of distant objects. Images of MoM-z14 were processed by Joseph DePasquale at the Space Telescope Science Institute, according to the research.
Previous JWST findings, including those from 2023, showed galaxies forming earlier than anticipated, prompting revisions to models of cosmic structure, sources familiar with the research said. Hubble Space Telescope observations had set earlier limits, but JWST's advanced infrared technology pushes the boundary further, NASA officials noted.
The discovery probes the reionization era, when the first light sources ionized neutral hydrogen in the universe, according to the study. MoM-z14's luminosity suggests rapid growth, possibly driven by supermassive black holes or other mechanisms not fully understood in current cosmological models like Lambda Cold Dark Matter.
Researchers extracted the galaxy's age from spectroscopic data, confirming light traveled for over 13 billion years to reach Earth. The study involved multiple institutions, including MIT and the JADES collaboration, and builds on thousands of hours of JWST data analyzed by astronomers worldwide.
NASA described JWST as the premier observatory for the next decade, capable of studying every phase of the universe's history. "Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade... studies every phase in the history of our Universe [from] the first luminous glows after the Big Bang," the agency's JWST page stated.
The findings align with broader trends in astronomy, where JWST data has accelerated discoveries and contributed to discussions on cosmological tensions, such as the Hubble constant discrepancy. Officials said the telescope's observations continue to test predictions about dark matter and early structure formation.
MoM-z14 represents the most distant spectroscopically confirmed source to date, extending the observational frontier to 280 million years after the Big Bang, the study concluded. No exact redshift value was specified in the published excerpts, but it exceeds that of prior records around z=14.3.
Astronomers anticipate further JWST observations will refine these insights, potentially identifying even earlier objects. The discovery fuels plans for next-generation telescopes, including the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and ground-based Extremely Large Telescopes, according to space agency reports.
Images and data from the MoM-z14 study are available through the Space Telescope Science Institute. The research team plans additional follow-up observations to measure the galaxy's mass and composition more precisely.
