Using Webb's instruments, an international team of scientists determined that this galaxy's redshift is 13.0, meaning it was seen just 330 million years after the big bang. The universe's age is estimated to be a little over 13 billion years.

Webb's penetrating infrared gaze has now revealed the true identity of the glow as a face-on, distant spiral galaxy. It has a protruding central bulge, shown in blue, where older stars reside. The bulge also seems to have side lobes, suggesting that this could be a barred spiral galaxy like the Milky Way.

Astronomers have identified a bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in the very early universe. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.